Transition to the dark side
by Thufir
Summary: The growth and adventures of Hope Estheim, after the events of the game. Previously Man to Hero to Legend to God.
1. And so it begins

_**And so, it begins**_

The sun had long since gone down and Hope Estheim trudged wearily up to his room, ignoring his father's faint snores from the bedroom opposite the passage. In truth, the house was very large but it often felt empty-there being only two people who actually lived in it. Hope moved through the empty corridor quietly and entered his bedroom, letting out a long sigh and slumping on his bed. Tomorrow was his sixteenth birthday, and it was going to be awesome. The presents were no big deal, but he couldn't wait to go out with his friends, and have all their attention on him. He clasped his hands behind the back of his head as he stared out of his window and up at the cloudless sky, and into the stars that flashed and shone in their own dance he could scarcely comprehend. His friends. A guilty flush boiled up, and his face turned red as a nasty ache wormed its way into his stomach. It had been two years. Two years since he had last seen his l'cie friends- Sazh, Lightning, Vanille, Serah, Snow, and he missed them all terribly. They called all the time, yet whenever they suggested meeting up he always had an excuse. Lightning had called last week to talk of a birthday party for him, yet something in her voice told him that she already knew what his answer would be, and it seemed to frustrate and anger her to no end. She had been stunned when he had told her he would think about it and maybe give them a surprise visit. He slapped his head in irritation-he did not intend to see any of them and now that they would be expecting him, it was only a million times worse. His father strongly disapproved of what he was doing, but Hope had no choice. Being there, with them would bring it all back. So far, he had managed to convince himself it was all in the past, and that is where he wanted it to stay. Thinking back to the younger boy he once was, the fourteen year old who had just reunited with his father, Hope snorted. He was so different it was as if he was someone else. In the last two years, he had grown a surprising amount and he was one of the tallest people in his class at five foot eleven. He was still slightly weedy, but that was starting to change and his clothes hid most of that.

Something was vibrating in his pocket, and it snapped him out of his thoughts. He pulled his phone out and answered it. It was Jessica. Hope smiled and nodded his head in an amused way. Early birthday wishes?

_Hope reluctantly got out of his father's vehicle, slowly walking forward, with each step being harder than the last. His first day at school was definitely going to be terrible. He wanted Lightning to be there. He refused to look back, concentrating on the path ahead. He was already late, but he could not find the energy to care. Sighing, he pulled a scuffed up map from his pocket, walked up the stone stairs and entered the building. His classroom was down the corridor and on the right. He heard giggling behind him, and saw a group of girls staring at his back with wide eyes. Red suffused his skin and he walked slightly faster._

_He finally reached the classroom and stormed in. He stopped when a heavy silence descended, but he took no notice and walked straight up to the teacher._

"_Hope Estheim, sorry I'm late" he said. The teacher gave him a long stare and raised her eyebrows. Hope wondered if he was meant to be intimidated. After all he had gone through, she expected him to be shy around a bunch of school kids? Fool woman. _

"_Yes Hope, take your seat, next to that nice young lady. I'll let you off now, but if you are late, again you will get a detention. Don't expect special treatment from me, even if you are a damn fine hero in my eyes." A big smile crossed her face, and an excited murmur sprang up around the class. Hope took his seat next to an attractive girl with blonde hair. _

"_You're Hope I take it?" She smiled at him. "Hi, I'm Jessica." Shoving thoughts of Lightning from his mind, he concentrated on the girl next to him. Maybe high school wouldn't be so bad after all._

"High Jess, what's up?" Hope breathed.

"We're all here"

"Where?" he replied.

"Look outside"

The connection terminated, and he frowned at his phone, eyebrows creased in confusion. Shoving it back in his pocket, he rolled over until he was close enough to the window to be able to look down. It was midnight, what could possibly be the matter? There he saw them-his best friends from school, along with his girlfriend looking up at him. Hope smiled and pumped his fist in the air, signalling them to wait a minute, whilst he dashed off and slipped on a coat and some trainers. Peeking out of his bedroom, he assured himself that his father was sleeping before sprinting back opening the window and leaping out, all in one move. He landed hard on the soft grass, and the wind was ripped out of him. Everything was dark for a moment, but they shortly cleared and he stood up and looked at his relieved friends.

"So, where are we going?"

"Charka? How? There's no way we can get drunk. No bar or pub on Pulse would ever let us in. Moreover, you know what? If they did, I'd be concerned."

Hope glanced at his complaining friend, but settled his eyes on Charka. "You know he is kinda right. It doesn't matter any way." Hope looked at his watch. "It's five past three-nothing will be open this early in the morning. We shouldn't have had that extra bowling game."

"We're not going to a stupid pub, we're going to my house. My parents aren't here and there is a ton of alcohol. It will be awesome." Charka replied.

"Whatever"

Hope opened his eyes, and blinked as sunshine blinded him. "Argh fuck!" he groaned. He noticed he was sleeping on a couch, and as he turned, he saw Jessica curled up on the inside with her arms around his neck. Rolling over again he saw his friends lying, in various uncomfortable positions on the floor, table and why the fuck was John sleeping in a fucking wardrobe?

His head pounded, and he tried to throw something at Charka. "Why did you open the blinds? Close them you douche!"

Charka shook his head and tried to pull Hope up. "Hope, my parents are coming back early. We have to clean up. Well maybe you don't, birthday boy, but help me get everyone else up."

Hope groaned and rolled off the couch, wincing as his knees hit the floor. "I can have everyone up in five minutes, but we really have to hurry up. My dad will probably wake up early so he can get my present ready and put the candles in the cake."

"You're sure? How do you know?" Charka asked.

Hope shrugged. "It's what he did last year."

"Quickly go then. I'll deal with this." Charka replied.

Hope almost laughed. "You think I plan on leaving you to wake these idiots up and clean this place by yourself?"

"But your dad-"

"Then we better get to work quickly." Hopes tone left no room for manoeuvre. "Now have you got a bucket?"

It was eight-thirty, when Hope finally left Charka's house and headed home. He had promised to meet his friends in the evening, but he was feeling more and more guilty. He wanted to see Lightning and the rest, and the thought of them waiting for someone who had no intention of going, the look of disappointment when they realized he had blown them off again. Serah had a child now- Hazel, and Hope desperately wanted to see her. Maybe it was time he stopped running from the past. Yes, he decided. He owed them that much at least. As soon as he got home, he would pack his bag. Hope entered the transport station, and was surprised by how many soldiers were around. The Guardian Corps usually did not come in such numbers unless something major happened. Dismissing it from his mind, Hope carried on walking.

Something was wrong, very wrong. Guardian Corp surrounded his house, milling around. There were the press, flashing cameras, microphones, and the fervent activity of a bomb squad? That was when he noticed that half his house was missing, and the Guardian Corp milling around were also entering his house where windows used to be. The air had a taste of smoke, and Hope found himself feeling sick. Dad.

"Mr. Estheim." A deep voice said.

Hope spun around and saw a Guardian Corp soldier walking to him, with a covered white stretcher being carried behind press that were filming him, jumped at the sight of Hope, and turned their attention to him. Murmurs sprang through the crowd, and soon he could hear shouts, asking for a word; cameras flashing and the hum of recorders.

"What's going on here? Who the hell are you and where's my father?" Hope was proud that his voice did not shake one bit. If he had to be on national news, at least it would be in style. He would have time to laugh at it with his father later. First, though, he had to find him.

"My name is lieutenant Rayed, Guardian Corp. Barthol-Your father, I mean, was declared missing this morning. We believe someone set fire to the house, in an attempt to cover his or her tracks, after the kidnapping." The man said it so matter-of-factly that Hope nearly screamed.

"Just what the hell are you trying to say?" Hope tried to unclench his fists. Unsuccessfully.

"As of 0800, this morning Mr. Bartholomew Estheim was changed to a missing person, after we received a call from Black Reid, holding him ransom." Rayed said, hands respectfully behind his back. "They made mention of you as well."

"Me? What? What the fuck would a terrorist organisation, specialising in advanced biological warfare want with me? Cut the shit!" Hope screamed the last word and tried to run off. Rayed stopped him, with his huge arms.

"This is very important Hope. Very important, so I want you to listen to me. We are taking you into protective custody, where we want to ask a few questions," Rayed said, his hand tightening around Hope's shoulder.

"Are you serious? Go fuck yourself. You should be finding your dad! Pay the fucking ransom! Whatever it takes!" Hope didn't even realize he was shouting.

"Calm down sir! You're on national television!" Rayed said alarmed. Hope almost giggled madly at the absurdity of the situation. "Besides we can't pay their ransom."

"Why the fucking hell not? Hey let go of me!" Hope tried to resist the two burly GC soldiers that had appeared out of nowhere, but it was to no avail. They escorted him inside the burning house, and sat him down on the wooden dining table, that was miraculously untouched.

"We can talk here Hope," a mysterious voice said, from behind him. Hope turned around and was confronted with the sight of a blonde bombshell who was so hot; Hope actually blushed despite the circumstance. "Away from the press. Now to business."

"We cannot pay the ransom, Hope, because it's you." She said. Hope looked at her in surprise, before turning back to look at Rayed.

"Wh...What?" Hope said faintly, all aggression fading away; only to be replaced with bone-numbing weariness.

"I am General Kayla De Silva, and the GC has been watching you for many years. We haven't much time, so I'm going to be as succinct as possible. Please forgive me-I am reading the relevant points out to you. You were kidnapped for two weeks, when you were fifteen years old, on October the 8th. You were returned, with no memories, back in your bed on October the 16th. The suspected kidnappers were Black Reid, a bio-terrorism unit, with suspected medical and genetic technology thousands of years ahead of our own thanks to the discovery of a Class-1 Ancient Biological Depositary, which we have been unable to locate. Although countless tests were run on you, nothing was ever found. Yet the symptoms of change were clearly evident. Your hair turned even stronger silver, your eyes a fiery red and green, your height has changed in the last year, so that now you are currently 5 feet and 11 eleven inches and you seem resilient to diseases. I believe that covers all the symptoms that have currently been exhibited."

"I'm not going to let you experiment on me!" Hope said defiantly, anger returning.

"We are suggesting nothing of the kind. In fact we want to make sure you're safe,"

Hope left the house around an hour later, with a goal-a destination in mind. He felt exhilarated and excited. Everything would be alright; he would find his father again. No matter what it took.

The rain was falling hard. Hope's coat was not waterproof, and he could feel the water trickling down his skin. He walked up the stone stairs to the house in front of him, and knocked. The sky was dark, and thunder was in the air; though it would be many hours until night.

The door opened, and he saw the one person who he knew he could depend on, no matter what. Lightning.


	2. On a cold summers day

_**On a cold summers day**_

He looked into her eyes, before feeling her arms wrapped tightly around him. "I'm so sorry Hope. I was just about to go look for you." She murmured in his ear. As if noticing that she was hugging him in the middle of the rain, she quickly released him, and pulled him inside. She sat him down at the dinner table and immediately picked up her phone. The city of New Bodhum was unbelievably nice, just as gorgeous as the original. Hope wondered how the city looked when the sun was shining. He saw Lightning glancing at him, as if to make sure he was all right. Hope frowned at her, and banged his head on the table in frustration. He was not a child. This seemed to have the opposite effect on Lightning, whose concern clearly grew. He peeked warily at her from in between the slits of his fingers. She was talking quietly to someone. She hadn't changed much in two years, and Hope was sure that once everything had settled down she would demand to know why he had been avoiding them for so long. He shuddered. He saw Lightning put the phone down and walk slowly towards him, unsure of what to do.

"You don't need to do that you know?" Hope said. Lightning looked at him, confused.

"I'm fine," he said. When she gave him a sceptical look, he rolled his eyes and glared at her. "Really I am. I came here because I need you to help me find somewhere to stay. Not because I need comfort."

"Hope your father is-" Lightning paused unsure of how to go on. Hope scowled at her. "You don't think I already know that. I'm not grieving." Hope said, his last words barely a whisper, and then in a stronger voice, "I will see him again."

"Let me make you something to eat. You are going to go for a shower, before you get ill." Lightning demanded. Hope turned his head at an angle and stared up at her. She was looking down at him, with one arm on her hip. Hope considered his options carefully. Depending on what he did next, he could either have Lightning as a parent figure or a friend. He had already been down one of them years ago. Back then he needed her to look after him, but not anymore. He only planned on staying here until he could find his own place. How he would do that-he had no idea. He was definitely not going to freeload off her, after not seeing her for the last two years.

Two forks in the road. Hope did not intend to allow her to order him around; she was his friend, not his mother.

"No" he looked at her to see how she would react. It was predictable. She looked stunned. Hope grimaced. He had to remind her that he was not the same boy that had followed her like a lost puppy all those years ago. Things had changed._ More ways than one._ Hope grimaced and shut that thought away.

"That's an order Hope." She looked at him expectantly. She _really _thought he would comply. It was almost laughable. "Go now."

"Why? The water's probably cold," Hope said resting his head on the table and looking at her. She gave him a considering look, as if unsure what to do.

"It's hot"

"How do you know?"

"I've just had a shower!"

"Prove it"

"What?"

"I don't feel like a shower Lightning," he said in an annoyed voice. Showers were a time for contemplation, and that was the last thing he needed. "Look Lightning you're not my mum, and I don't want you to be." He looked at her stunned eyes. "I prefer you as my friend."

She gave him a long look, before a small smile threatened to break out of her face. "Did I tell you how much I missed you?" Hope stood up and rushed towards her, wrapping her in a tight hug. "I've missed you Lightning." Hope released her and looked into her eyes. He gasped as she wrapped her arms around him tightly. He could barely breathe.

"Funny way of showing it." She replied. "We'll talk about that later. And didn't I tell you to call me Light?"

"Argh about that. You see it's actually confusing. If I were to say _stupid light_, referring to the overhead lights, and you heard me…"

"I would punch you," she said with a small smile.

"Wouldn't it be easier to call you _ning_ instead?" Hope laughed.

"To be honest I don't mind being called Claire anymore. Lightning was something I made up to deal with the stress of having to look after Serah. That's all gone now."

"For some reason you'll always be Lightning to me," Hope laughed. "And don't worry; I won't be staying here for long. A few days max, whilst I find somewhere to live." Hope said raising his arms.

"That's not going to happen. You're still a child Hope, and you're staying right here and what's happened to your face? It's all pale and wrinkled." Lightning said in a worried tone. Hope started at her change of subject. Unpredictable-that's what she was. Hope moved away from her, and over to the mirror, above the oven. He nearly fell over in surprise. His hair had lost its sheen and was a dull grey, his eyes had turned a sooty grey, and his skin had turned white with dark undertones, which creased into wrinkles.

"Oh what the fuck is this?" he whispered, so Lightning couldn't hear. Pushing it to the back of his mind he walked back to the table and sat down, before jumping up, holding his arse. "Oh. Oh. That's uncomfortable. And cold. Did I mention uncomfortable?" Hope pulled his sticky trousers from his skin and turned around to face away from Lightning, his face starting to turn red. "I...I, think I will go for a shower after all." Lightning simply walked past him, "If you want a shower, follow me."

She led him to a white door, first on the left after the stairs. He opened it to reveal a large bathroom, with cream walls and a shiny marble floor. His heart started to beat. Faster and faster. Hope looked lovingly at the shower in front of him, imagining the hot water caressing his back…

He pulled his wet trousers down, eager to get rid of them. He hated the way they felt against his skin. As he was trying to pull them off, he slipped on the wet puddle directly onto Lightning, and they both tumbled to the floor. Hope grimaced in pain, as he rolled of her and squeezed his throbbing thigh. He slowly got up, muttering and casting a dark look at the wet floor.

He held a hand up to Lightning, and as she pulled him up, he saw her face was a faint shade of pink. Hope laughed to himself, deciding to have some fun at her expense. He made to pull his boxers down, only stopping when Lightning cleared her throat and glared at him.

"What? Don't tell me you've never seen a naked guy before Light! Oh! Maybe you haven't. Someday, maybe you'll get lucky. Oops." Hope said with a straight face. It was priceless. Lightning was looking at him with a shocked face. The Hope she knew would never have done or said such a thing. He would have been embarrassed thinking about it! _That's because __**that**__ Hope was a shy little boy. This Hope's a whole new ball game._

"Maybe the new Hope is too much for you to handle. My teachers think so. In fact…"

It was only when she saw him starting to giggle and realized he had no intention of stripping in front of her that she gave a small smile. She rolled her eyes though as her immature friend fell to the floor in a fit of giggling. She looked on in shock as his laughing gave way to wheezing and tears.

"Be quick Hope. The others will get here soon." She said before closing the door. Hope took a few minutes to recover, before looking at the shower cubicle and then to the big bathtub. Maybe someday he would get to mess around in that, but not today. He stripped and entered the shower, turning on the tap, before yelping and heroically jumping out of the cubicle, hitting the ground with a loud thud. He was lying on his stomach in a wet puddle on the cold stone floor, wincing in pain. He saw the door open and Lightning rush in. She stopped when she saw him lying naked on the floor, and taking a breath she looked to the side.

"What happened?" She snapped, still looking away from him. Hope blushed, before becoming defensive. "First there happens to be a huge spider in your stupid bath, second the water is freezing cold, and third you're disturbing me!"

"You have to wait for the water to turn warm, and don't tell me this brand new version of Hope is still scared of spiders." Lightning said with a smile whilst still looking away.

"I can deal with it, and quit staring at my arse!" Hope said, his cheeks turning even more red. He _was_ not scared of spiders. The furry bastard had surprised him. That was all. He needed to get her defensive to take the focus away from him.

"What? My head is turned!" Lightning snapped.

"Liar!"

"Just hurry up!" she said annoyed. She turned and made her way to the door, before Hope stopped her.

"Wait! Where are you going?" He shouted, panic evident. She turned in surprise. "Aren't you going to get rid of the spider for me?"

She crossed her arms. "Not a chance in hell."

Hope could almost swear he heard her call him a little girl.

"You definitely need to invest in thermo heating for the floor." Hope said.

"Why?"

"Cause I'm lying on the floor, and right now my dick is freezing!"

She turned around and gave him a disgusted look.

"Don't you dare speak like that in front of me!" she said horrified.

"What?"

Lightning left the bathroom and closed the door behind her.

Hope stared at the closed door for a few seconds. She hadn't even gotten rid of the spider.

He had learnt a lot from the last half-hour:

Lightning was still the same, just without all the regret and angst she had had last time.

Her new house was really nice-_How did she afford it?_

Everyone else was coming-That could be awkward. Then again maybe not-he was looking forward to meeting them.

Lastly Lightning wasn't a friend. She was still a mentor. She had to be treated as such, which meant he had to behave like a polite child around her.

Hope spent the next five minutes attempting to dispose of the spider before deciding to impale it on a stick with a brush on the end, which Lightning probably used to scrub herself. He missed though, hitting one of the spiders leg. The creature fell and Hope used this opportunity to trap it under the cap of Lightning's shower gel. He entered the shower and felt the hot water wash over him. He stayed there for a few minutes before turning it off in order to put on shampoo and shower gel. Once Hope got out of the shower, he dried himself with the towel Lightning had laid out for him. Hope wrapped it around him and exited the bathroom searching for clothes. He entered Lightning's room, searching through her cupboard. He was sure she wouldn't mind him borrowing her boyfriend's clothes, until he could buy himself new ones. He hoped the man had a good sense of fashion though.

There was one problem, which was becoming increasingly apparent as he searched. There were no men's clothes in Lightning's room. Lightning didn't have a boyfriend, or if she did he didn't live here, which was useless to him. Hope flushed and cursed her solitary behaviour. He had no choice but to wear her clothes. And he was sure she would mind that.

Hope walked slowly down the stairs, grunting in pain. Lightning was slender, and her clothes were tight fit. He had picked one of her t-shirts and shorts, both plain blue, with no designs. The shorts were elastic, so they were fine. The t-shirt however was several sizes to small and was more than uncomfortable. He walked through the downstairs passageway and into the living room. Everyone suddenly stood up when they saw him, and Hope felt his eyes begin to water. Sazh was there, so was Serah and Snow and Lightning of course. They all huddled around him, offering words of pity and comfort. Snow sat beside him, arm curled on Hope's shoulder. Serah was on the other side, eyes wet with tears, telling him everything was going to be okay. Lightning stood over to one side-no doubt unsure of what to do, and still clearly angry and embarrassed. Hope didn't particularly care. She seemed fixated on maintaining their old relationship, one which he had outgrown. He would maintain it, but it was false. The Hope that she had known was long gone, but he would put on a front for her to put her mind at rest. Looking over at Snow and seeing him wink. And seeing Sazh he realized he wouldn't have to do it for everyone.

With these people around him, he could get over anything. The only problem was that he didn't want to get over it. He wanted it to stay in his mind until the man was found. He would find his father. He would search to the ends of the Earth. He had lost one parent, and he would damn well not lose another.


	3. A new home and a shopping spree

_**A new home and a shopping spree**_

Hope entered his new room, Lightning not far behind. Everyone else had just left a few minutes ago. She had insisted that he stay with her, at least until somewhere proper could be found. He was surprised by her offer, but had gratefully accepted. He was too tired to make any jokes and just wanted to get some sleep.

"This is a spare room, you can stay here." He heard Lightning's voice. She sounded uncertain. Hesitant. _What the fuck? Was she still hung up about earlier? _He supposed it must have been a shock, but he was sixteen now! He probably shouldn't have made such a crude joke though.

"Is it alright?" She asked.

Hope grunted and jumped on the bed. He looked back to see if she was still there, and once he was she was gone, he closed his eyes trying to get to sleep. Trying to forget the last few days. It had been hard keeping up the act, and he could not stop sobs from coming out. He had only just lost his mum, and to lose his father, whom he had only just got to know properly...It was too much. He stared up at the sky, and at the pinpoints of light in the sky, as he quietly cried. Yesterday everything seemed so perfect, and now his life was shattered. He hadn't even said bye to Jessica. He didn't see the shadow of Lightning standing behind him as he cried himself to sleep. The shadow did not leave until Hope finally fell asleep.

Light shined on Hopes face, as he cursed Lightning for never putting up curtains. He rolled off his bead and gasped in pain. He had fallen asleep with the tight clothes from yesterday. He ripped of his t-shirt, but it didn't work. All he had done was tear it. Still it was not as tight as before, and Hope decided to go downstairs. He walked out of his room, and down the stairs, into the kitchen. Strong rays of sunshine bathed the room in a yellow aura.

"Light?" Hope yelled. "Where are you?"

It was clear nobody was at home, however, on the kitchen table there was a note from Lightning.

_Hope_

_Gone to work. Food in fridge. Be back as soon as I can. Number-line is _

_Light_

Hope sighed as he looked at the note, writing her number on his hand with a permanent marker. It would take at least a week to fade away. Her note was typical. Short and to the point. It was annoying, since he wanted to know how long she was going to be gone for, so he knew what time to get back. He had no house keys, which was alright since he probably wasn't going to be staying here for long anyway. He opened the cupboard above the fridge and pulled out a cereal. Hope crunched his nose at what he found. It was some stupid healthy oat cereal. He looked again in the cupboard but there were no sugary types of food, not even in the fridge. What did he expect, living with a soldier? Hope went upstairs and entered the bathroom, tearing the shirt off in pure frustration when it did not come off. He kicked his shorts off and entered the shower, not bothering to close the bathroom door. He needed money, so he had to first go to a cash machine. He had ten thousand gil currently saved up and that should be enough for now. He wanted to buy Lightning a small gift, to say thank you. And he desperately needed new clothes.

He stepped out of the shower, grabbed a towel and dried himself. He stepped into Lightning's room, and rummaged through her clothes, looking for the most masculine outfit he could find. He couldn't find anything so he picked out one of her coats, and jeans and put them on. It was beyond incredibly uncomfortable, and he shivered when he thought of what Lightning would say if she realized he was commando. He cursed himself for not bringing any clothes from home, before he realized that all his old clothes had been destroyed in the fire. He rushed downstairs and opened the kitchen draws looking for spare keys. There were none. Clearly Lightning was not used to guests, and just as obviously she didn't expect to lose her keys. Sighing Hope opened the front door, and closed it firmly behind him. He would have to come back when he was sure she had returned.

Hope wished he had his phone, but he had left it at his house when he had gone out with his friends. He shielded his eyes from the glaring sun, and looked around him. He hadn't realized it yesterday, when everything was so wet and miserable, but New Bodhum really was a beautiful place. The sky was straight azure blue, without even a hint of clouds, and the sound of the ocean could be heard, with palm trees everywhere. Compared to Retrima, his old home, this was paradise.

It didn't take long to find a cash point, and luckily Hope had remembered his access card. He never went anywhere without it. He inserted it into the machine and typed in his code, tapping his feet into the pavement as he waited for verification. What he saw shook him to his core. He did not have ten thousand gil, or even a hundred thousand. The machine read:

_Account no. 12345323_

_Account holder name: Estheim H._

_Account balance: 370000102560.23_

_Maximum withdrawal limit: 2200 gil_

"What the fuck?" Hope murmured, retrieving 2200 gil. He had been saving up for years, and the last time he had checked, he only had just over ten thousand gil. His account now held 37 billion, no wait he had counted it wrong- 370 billion. How? His father had only been pronounced missing yesterday, and even if it were possible for all his dad's money to be transferred so quickly, it would not be more than a few million. In any case, he would not get his inheritance until he was eighteen. Something was definitely wrong. Had his father done this, had he somehow known what was going to happen to him? Impossible, but maybe...It didn't matter; he would have to deal with it later. He continued walking down the streets of New Bodhum, marvelling at its beauty. His heart was beating, fast; forcing Hope to consider the absurdity of the situation. He was now sure this was all a dream. It was just too much. 370 billion! No one had that kind of money! Not even people like Harold Luvi and John Kissinger!

People were giving him funny looks, and as well, they might. Hope was well aware that a woman's coat and ultra slim fit jeans did not go, but he had no choice. His roommate did not have a boyfriend. Hope ground his teeth. It was beyond frustrating. A voice in the back of his mind announced the opinion that he probably looked gay, but he violently shoved that though away.

It did not take him long to find a clothes shop: _Maravillara's._ He had always avoided those shops back in Retrima. They looked gorgeous, and felt beautiful but they cost a fortune._ Well now, I have a fortune,_ Hope thought smiling to himself. Half an hour later he carried out a silver cloth bag which contained a black trench coat, black trousers, a black top, silver necklace, a bracelet and black sunglasses. All the clothes were inlaid with silver lace, and looked stunning. Unfortunately, Hope realized that he did not quite have the body to pull it off yet, and so he decided to carry on shopping. He felt like such a fool, everyone was staring at the shop when he had tried to pay for all his things in cash. The serving woman had politely told him to give her his access card, since they only accepted digital transactions. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw a stunningly beautiful woman sitting on the streets begging for money. Hope's heart went out to her, and anyway the large wad of cash sitting in his coat was starting to get on his nerves.

"Please, please I need money. For food." The woman groaned. It didn't make a difference, no one stopped to help her up, nor did anyone give her any money, apart from the odd gil thrown now and then. Hope crossed the street, and pulled her up.

"No one should have to do what you are doing. Here take this and may the Maker bless you." Hope gave her the money and walked off, leaving the stunned woman in his wake.

It was getting dark when Hope finally started to return home. The only bags in his hands were those from Maravillara's. Everything else he had asked to be delivered to Lightning's address. They included a new Holo-TV, a vibrating chair, and a home entertainment system. In all he had spent around fifty thousand gil. _I really hope this dream doesn't end soon…_

He would have bought his own house, but you had to be eighteen to do that. Hope walked past a large bar, which was already packed. He hadn't paid it much attention in the morning, but now he saw this place was a major meeting place for those who lived in the area. Hope entered the bar, went straight up to barman and asked to see the owner. The barman looked at Hope and pointed to a door down the side, with a sign saying private.

Hope had a plan, which if successful would allow him to meet everyone in social conditions. It would be a brilliant way to make friends, as well as earn money. If it worked.

Hope barged into the room, to find himself in a large office filled with smoke. The man sitting behind the desk raised his eyebrows.

"If you can't read, the sign says private. I suggest you get out, before I call security," the man said in a testy voice.

Hope smiled, whilst his heart was beating like a drum. He prayed the man would not notice.

"I'm here to buy up this establishment," Hope said in as strong a voice as he could manage.

The owner gave him a sneer, and looked him up and down. "I tell you what, young man. Give me, half a million gil and this place will be yours in six months. I need to move out anyway."

"A million gil, and you have to clear out tonight, give me the deed and no questions asked." Hope replied, butterfly's forming in his stomach. The owners face blanched white.

"I was joking about half a...A million gil! Really? This place barely cost two hundred! If I may ask how does a nineteen year old get a million gil?" The owner asked. Hope noticed that he seemed to be much nicer now._ Wait, he thinks I'm nineteen? I'm only sixteen -If he knew; he would never sell it to me. I'm not even old enough to buy a drink!_

"Well have you got any papers? Proof of identification?" The man asked.

"Do you have a mortgage on the bar?" Hope asked, hoping to god he didn't, and the deal could be done straight up.

"Wha? No, its all paid off. Been in my family for generations it has, but the truth is I've always wanted to sell it. If you're not mucking around I would be well inclined to make the transaction, all I need is your personal identification, so I can be sure you're not a scammer."

Hope noticed that the man had stood up and had taken off his red cap.

"Take it or leave it. I've got my access card right here and I can give you the money right now. No questions asked," Hope replied, already turning around. This was a bad idea. However, much to his surprise the owner grabbed his sleeves. "Right here and now? On you? For a million gil I would kiss you myself I would. My name is Crawford, Crawford Beaseley. And if it so pleases you, the Light and Shadow is yours. Let me just draw everything up."

If Crawford had seen Hope's face he would have seen that the sixteen year old had a look that radiated shock, but was mixed with more than a little excitement.

It was eleven thirty when Hope finally knocked on Lightning's door. She opened it suspiciously quickly, and gave him a glare that made him want to flee.

"Where have you been Hope? I've had Snow and Sazh looking for you for hours! Sazh had to hire a babysitter for Dajh. Everyone was really worried." Lightning resumed her glaring, but he noticed it had softened.

"Hope looked up at her and smiled. "I just went shopping."


	4. The hospital ward

_**The hospital ward**_

Hope was standing in the kitchen, looking nervously at Lightning. "Look I'm really sorry that I didn't tell you where I was going, but I mean, how could I? You were gone when I woke up. Besides, it's not a big deal. Stop acting like I'm a child." This only appeared to piss Lightning off more. Her face softened, when she finally looked over him properly, and Hope could have sworn she was fighting back a smile.

"You wore those clothes? Outside? You actually wore them? Maker." Lightning breathed. "Are you actually wearing anything under that coat?"

When Hope shook his head slightly, all anger in Lightning's face disappeared. She actually laughed, and Hope was so shocked he nearly fell backwards. He had never seen her laugh like this, and he wasn't sure what to make of it. "You realize what you look like." She said in-between breaths. Hope narrowed his eyes, before stubbornly raising his chin and looking at her.

Lightning laughed. Hope started grinning too, and didn't realize Lightning's eyes begin to widen and her face begin to colour. Now instead of laughing she was starting to make choking sounds, and muttering something about _jeans_; as her face grew progressively darker. Hope still noticing nothing, continued to grin like an idiot. Her next question hit him like a freight train.

"Hope, you're not wearing any underwear are you?" Lightning said in an undeniably menacing tone. Hope stopped grinning, and started backing away as he saw her approach her, fists in the air. He made the tactical decision to retreat to higher ground, running up the stairs and into his new bedroom and barricading the doors. There he saw a number of bags, from different shops, containing clothes._ Lightning had bought all of these for him?_ There weren't just clothes, but also face cream, deodorant, a toothbrush new shower gel and a comb- not that Hope would ever use a comb; but it was the thought that counted. Excitedly unpacking the clothes, Hope began to put them in the cupboard, taking out only the nightclothes he planned to wear. Changing into them, he peeked out into the corridor for signs of Light, but there were none. Grabbing one of his new towels, he decided to have a shower, before turning in for bed. Taking off his coat and flinging it across the room, he turned on the taps, and waited for the water to warm up. With great difficulty, he attempted to pull of his jeans, and he saw that it left a nasty red rash all the way up his legs. Sighing he got into the shower and enjoyed the feeling of the hot water as it rained down on him. His mind raced, thinking about the money that he now had. He could hire a private firm to go look for his father. He could…

But if anyone found out, he would lose the money. The risk was too great. He needed to set everything up, so that nothing could go wrong._ I haven't forgotten you dad. Of all things-not that._

Lightning paced around the room angrily. She had just gotten off the phone with Serah, letting her know Hope was okay. She felt conflicted. Part of her was in an absolute rage at Hope for pulling a stunt like that, _after she had spent a week's pay buying him proper stuff!_ Another part of her had found it hilarious. She had laughed and smiled more in the last two days than she had in the last two years. Maybe that's what it felt like to have real friends. Her bearish and no-nonsense attitude was like a friend repellent; if anyone else had done what Hope was guilty of, she would have hit them. Thinking back, she really had nearly hit Hope yesterday, after his outrageous comment, involving the heat of the floor. _Had he really changed that much? How could he have?_

She often smiled at her colleagues jokes, but that was only to avoid awkwardness. Hope was the closest friend she had, and the only one who could make her laugh and smile effortlessly, often without realizing it. It was impossible to stay angry with him for long.

She stopped pacing, and decided to talk to him. She frowned when she saw his room empty and heard the shower running. Walking back downstairs, she sat on the sofa and turned the small box-TV on. The thing was ancient, but she never watched enough of it to justify changing it. She had heard of the new Holo-TV's, but she could never afford one. She looked back at the screen. The last time she had turned it on, was to see the news about Hopes father. Sighing she made herself comfortable and watched a program about cookery. People were often surprised that she liked cookery shows, and granted action movies were preferable; but she cooked didn't she? She needed to get her ideas from somewhere. Amador had forced her to take the next month off, once he heard, Hope had come to stay. She hadn't protested too much, not only was she starting to feel tired, but there was so much to do. She hadn't taken a vacation since she had been reinstated. Perhaps she needed one.

Hope growled, as he saw that his makeshift curtain had not worked. The coat he had worn yesterday, which he had hung on the window had fallen off during the night. The sunlight burnt his face, and Hope rolled off his bed onto the floor, groaning even more. It was Saturday today, so Lightning wouldn't be at work. He groaned. All of the stuff he had bought yesterday was going to be delivered today. He wondered how she would react. He could guess. He looked into the mirror and cringed. He looked nothing like himself. It was known by everyone in his old school, that by far and away the most gorgeous boy was Hope Estheim, with his silver hair and emerald eyes. This boy looking in the mirror looked like a pale ghost. _An imitation_. He looked _ugly_. Hope had hated it when people commented on how he looked, but now he just wanted to look like that again. He wondered how long it would take to return to normal. As he grabbed one of his towels, he felt his body explode in pain and he screamed, stumbling out of the room. He heard movement downstairs, before he collapsed onto the floor, everything blacking out.

Hope grimly opened his eyes. His whole body felt like it was on fire, but he didn't have the strength to do anything. Looking over him, he saw Lightning and Serah. Snow and Sazh were in the hallway looking through the glass. The doctor wore white and turned around to see him, when he groaned.

"Argh, Mr. Estheim. You're awake I see. Good. How're you feeling?" The doctor asked kindly. Hope looked at him in surprise.

"I don't know. Alright, I guess. What happened?" he asked.

"We were hoping you would tell us."

Hope sighed; this would be a long day. Looking at the two women sitting next to his bed, he feared they would never let him out of their sight again. "How long was I out for?" he asked.

"Just over two hours. I..." he heard Serah say.

"I've given you a complete check, and there doesn't appear to be anything wrong." The man still looked uncertain. "Nevertheless I have injected you with a regenerative serum. It should make you feel better, but it will take a few hours to work fully. There's absolutely no reason for you to stay here-that is if you can move."

Hope cast a glare at the doctor. _Why was he uncertain_? _And why did he talk like a robot?_ It didn't matter, he was definitely leaving. Kicking off his blanket, he tried to get up, and as he saw the world lurching, he grabbed onto the closest person next to him. Taken by surprise the figure toppled, and Hope fell onto-whoever it was. It was Lightning. Blinking slowly, and taking controlled breaths, so as not to fall over again, he slowly got up, offering a hand to her. She didn't take, but rose herself, fixing him with a death glare.

"You're not going anywhere Estheim. You're staying in that bed until you have something to eat. Hope exhaled loudly, and jumped back on the bed, as he felt he ground begin to lurch. He nearly screamed in frustration at Lightning's smug smile. _Doesn't she know I'm only on the bed, so I don't fall over? I am NOT obeying her._ Hope grabbed his pillow and shoved it on his face. He heard her speaking again.

"I'm going to get him something to eat. Look after him Serah. I won't be long."

Hours later, as Hope was beginning to pull his hair out in boredom, Serah burst into his ward. After Lightning had gone, Snow and Sazh had come to say hello. They had gone to stay outside, in the waiting area, once the doctor had coolly reminded them that he needed to rest. It had been almost six hours; and Hope had had enough of watching wildlife programs on the hospital TV. Even if he had known where the remote was, he had the faint suspicion this was all there was.

"Hope, it's time to go," Serah said.

"What is going on? Where's Lightning, and more importantly where is my food-I'm starving." Hope said angrily.

"Lightning was delayed, but that's not a problem. We're going to dinner now. There's a small party in fact-if you're up for it." Serah replied. "I'm sure Lightning will tell us what happened when we get there. Come on, it starts at nine."

Hope looked slyly up at her. "Food you say?" He kicked off his blankets and stood up, stretching. He nodded in satisfaction when he noticed that the ground was no longer lurching.

"Here take this. We got your clothes from home. Honestly Hope it's so dark in here, where are the lights? I can barely see you!" Serah moaned.

"No worries, I had it dark because I was watching telly-I like the cinema effect. I'll come out in a sec." Hope answered, waiting for her to leave and the door to close before he started to change. He stepped outside, into a well- lit corridor, shielding his eyes. He was wearing an orange top, and loose jeans. The necklace he had bought yesterday, hanging outside. He felt marvellous, as if something great had been taken from his shoulders. He felt normal; like he did before his dad had died. Serah was facing the other way, on the phone. "No, he's fine. Yes, I'm sure. We're on our way, stop fretting."

Hope stifled a laugh. "Light fretting? I don't think so. Where is everyone?"

Serah sighed putting her phone back in her pocket. "You'd be surprised. She worries about you just as much as she does about me, and that's saying something."

"Yeah well, I'd kinda appreciate it if she worried a little less"

"Might as well ask birds not to fly. Snow and Sazh are at the party-I sent them..." Serah turned around and her eyes went wide.

Hope turned red under her stare, and scratched his head uncomfortably. "Serah, what's wrong?" Serah was still staring at him.

"You look...You're...face...different. I..." Serah was lost for words. Hope snarled and turned away, looking in the mirror opposite his room. If that fucking doctor had made his face worse…

His pale face, grey hair, and dim eyes were gone. Instead, his eyes shone bright green; his hair was shiny silver and his face a healthy colour. He was back to normal. _How? _Must have been the regenerative serum, he mumbled.

He looked back at Serah, who was still staring. Grabbing her arms, he shook her, and she snapped out of it. "Come on Serah, I'm starving." He carried on walking, as Serah ran to catch up.

Lead Head Doctor Stefan di Alberto Robson stared down at his readings, triple checking them. His anniversary was tomorrow-May 13; and staying overtime was the last thing he wanted. But these results could possibly be worth it. By his side stood a pretty blonde with a serious face- Lead Doctor McRow. "I've never seen anything like this," he sighed.

"Is it serious?"

"I don't know. It could be fatal, or as harmless as a cold. It could kill him in a day, month year, ten years, or it could never bother him again. I've never seen any kind of blood like this. I just don't know."

"What do suspect will happen sir?"

"It's lain dormant all this time, but it looks like that's finally about to change. I believe the process has already begun- it just needed something to trigger it."

"Process?"

"I'm not sure what else to call it."

"Records indicate that his father was declared missing on Thursday, perhaps the stress was enough of a trigger?"

"Thursday huh? He looked fine to me. How old is he again?"

"Sixteen sir."

"Impossible, I saw him as he left- he looked more like-"

"I know. I checked his birth certificate to be sure, and he really is sixteen."

"Huh! Well no guardian I guess?"

"No sir, but then again he is legally allowed to live alone. I hear he is staying with GC lieutenant Claire Farron- a friend from the l'Cie days."

"Really? Interesting-What did Tonayo give the boy?"

"Just a regenerative serum. He didn't know what else to do, and I don't blame him. He nearly fell over when he saw Estheim's blood works."

"I'll get our top scientists on this. This is going right up to the heads. Bring General Kayla, Moro and Anderton from the Guardian Corp; General Villiers, Hudson and Baker from N.O.R.A., and General Yvonne, Semers and Liuy from A.D.F., online. This is a matter of national security."

"General Villiers is off-duty currently, to concentrate on looking after his new child. In addition he is extremely close to Estheim, back from the l'Cie days."

"Leave him off the list then, but get the rest. They're going to want to see this. I have strong suspicions about what has happened to him, but I'm inclining to keep them to myself until I'm sure. Remember to keep an eye on him." As Robson was about to leave he turned back. "Don't think there's any need to tell him-it'll only worry him. Not until we've found out what it is, and can do something about it."

"Understood sir"


	5. Kara

_**Kara**_

Lightning sat next to Snow, who was chatting loudly to Lebreau and Maqui. _Where were Serah and Hope?_ She checked her phone again, but there were no messages. Snow saw her, from the corner of his eyes, and frowned. "Are you still worrying? Don't worry they'll be here soon." _Snow trying to comfort her_? The last thing she needed was his comfort.

The restaurant was high-end, and not the type that Lightning usually frequented. She preferred to stay at home and eat-when she had free time, which was not often. This situation was completely new to her. _A month off?_ That was outrageous! Amador had said it was because she had to look after Hope, but if there was one thing she was certain of, it was that Hope didn't need looking after. He no longer was the child she had protected all those years ago. He _did_ need to watch his mouth though-his words were still causing shock to ripple through her. Since when had Hope_ ever _spoken like that? Did kids really change that drastically? Sighing she looked around her.

"There they are," the woman to the other side of Snow, and opposite Maqui said. _Kara_. Lightning liked her, even if she was Snow's cousin. At least she knew when to keep her mouth shut. Lightning saw the two figures approach. About time.

Hope followed close behind Serah, looking at the place he was in. He saw his friends from afar, and raced towards them, pushing past Serah. He stopped in front of their table, not noticing how everyone stared at him. A beautiful waitress stopped next to him, with a smile.

"Fancy anything?" she smiled suggestively. Hope grinned-he had missed this. He loved the way girls fawned all over him. Yesterday had felt strange, with everyone treated him normal. He hadn't liked it. Hope didn't do normal. Not that.

He was about as confident around girls as it was possible to be. A lot had changed since he was l'Cie, scurrying under Palumpolum's tunnels with Lightning. He wasn't stupid-his looks gave him a massive advantage over every other guy, but it was his personality, his conversation skills, and most important his boundless confidence that made him almost unbelievably good. It had actually started not long after he had settled down at his old school, where he was dared to run around the city wearing only a thong. Still shy, though wanting to make a good impression he had stripped and bounded away, before any of the girls could properly see him. The resulting news coverage had washed away all sense of shyness he could possibly have. Of course, he wasn't confident about everything –public speaking was a definite no-go. He supposed he was only so confident, since he had had ridiculous levels of practice, with his friends. He didn't want to think what would have happened if he had gone to an all-boys school.

"Actually, I wouldn't mind a Bywear's-super chilled, and whatever snacks you've got. You wouldn't believe how hungry I am. I'll eat _anything_ you give me," Hope teased with a wink. The lady turned absolutely red, and seemed lost for words. She only nodded and walked quickly off. Hope didn't even seem to realize how his words could be misinterpreted. Nor did he see the woman giggling with her friends, all the whilst having a dreamlike expression and hunger in her eyes. If he had, he probably would have smiled.

Everyone else had noticed it though, and more than one mouth had dropped completely open. There were a number of seats available, and Hope moved to sit next to Lightning, but Serah beat him to it, sticking her tongue out at him.

Hope raised his eyebrows-s_ince when did Serah do that?_ He had to find somewhere else to sit. He decided to sit next to the girl in a red dress, next to Snow. She seemed familiar, but Hope could not quite remember her. He high-fived Maqui, Yuj and fist punched Snow before taking his seat.

"Alright guys? Long-time no see." Hope smiled. He really had missed those clowns.

The girl looked shocked. Hope dismissed her from his mind; he had better things to worry about. He closed his eyes, and rested his head on the table, looking at his watch-it was only nine-twenty. _Why the fuck am I so tired then?_

He heard the girl next to him clear her throat and he looked up warily.

"You really don't remember me do you?" she said whilst smiling over her drink. Hope rolled his eyes. "Should I?" _I have no time for this._

"Well, seeming as you gave me over two thousand gil yesterday, I would hope so." The girl replied. Snow spluttered, Yuj dropped his drink, Lebreau snapped her head towards him and Maqui gasped. Lightning and Serah stopped talking. Hope took his head off the table, and looked at the girl properly. He sighed as he recognized her from the day before. This was just great. If anyone asked how he got that much money…

…he would be fucked.

She still looked as beautiful as ever-just as beautiful as Lightning and Serah; and any other time he would have loved to talk to her. Now though he was tired beyond belief, and he rested his head back on the table, looking up at her.

"What are you doing here? I saw you begging on the streets." Hope asked, though he was already thinking about something else when she replied.

"Huh?" he said.

"I said why did you do it? That must have been like a monthly wage!"

"I was feeling generous; you know seeing a damsel in distress. I suffer from a rare and crippling disease, called hero complex. If you stay around me long enough you'll get used to it." Hope stifled a laugh into his arm. He didn't see the girls shocked face. This was not how she had expected him to react.

"Here you go sir," Hope sat up properly, and saw the waitress from before holding his ice-cold beer, and two huge baskets of cheese nachos. She turned towards Snow. "The food you ordered will be here shortly. Please enjoy." She gave Hope a quick smile and quickly turned and left. He could dimly hear Snow loudly complaining about how Hope got the food first, even though he had been waiting twenty minutes.

"Want some?" he offered.

"Really?"

"Well yeah," Hope replied, pushing the nachos out onto the middle of the table. It took around half a minute to be completely empty.

Hope looked at his glass, feeling suddenly excruciatingly thirsty. He felt like he had swallowed something that had stuck to his throat, and a drink was the easiest way to clear it. Grabbing the beer, he tilted his head back and drank half of it in one sitting. He waited a few seconds before drinking the rest. His throat was on fire and his vision blurry. He had never drunk anything so fast.

Closing his eyes he waited for his body to calm down, and sure enough sound returned to his ears, and feeling returned to his fingers and legs. Hope was not a heavyweight, and drinking a pint of beer so quickly would definitely have its toll. He was still surprised everyone had allowed him to, but maybe that was because they hadn't noticed.

He was still on a serious high after the regenerative serum. It healed the body, using the body's own energy reserves; though there could be serious, though temporary mental side-effects. Once he had eaten properly, the constant wave of nauseating weariness should go. With that in mind, he forced himself to open his eyes and start eating. He dimly heard Snow and the others talking about him, and their tone seemed highly impressed. He could barely hear Lightning and Serah- they weren't impressed. Once Hope had eaten the second bowl of cheesy nachos, he looked around. He was still more than ravenous, but he no longer felt tired. The effects of regen serum were strange like that. He had taken it once before, last year. Once he had eaten, the tired feeling had stopped, almost instantly.

He sighed, and stretched upwards, hearing his arms click. "So, Hope. I see you know my cousin Kara. She's in Bodhum because next week is her twenty-second birthday, and she couldn't wait to see me. Quite the handful isn't she!" Hope turned towards Snow with wide eyes. Snow gave a tiny nod, and Hope grinned.

"Hi Kara, I'm Hope." He said in his most mocking tone. He then added in a whisper to Snow-which Kara was plainly meant to hear, "You should look after her more. I find the silly girl half-naked on the streets begging me for money."

_Uh-oh! This is bad, the regen serum is…_

Snow grinned, "Really?" He was enjoying this. Kara was beginning to splutter indignantly.

"Oh yeah! She was really quite insistent, crying for me to help her. You should have seen it. She even offered to do things, which would make nice girls blush-things she would do for no one else. Only for me. Because I'm her hero." Hope said in a loud voice that carried across the table. Hearing those words from his mouth felt strange, simply because although he liked to have fun, he would ordinarily never have gone this far. Not in public anyway. He wondered how long the effects of the regen serum would last. That heavy-content beer couldn't have helped either.

"What...No...Don't believe...Lies...What? It was a dare! Snow, you know Hila! She told me that…" Kara had turned a deep, beetroot red, stunned for words. Serah and Lightning were giving him death glares. He was so screwed later; both girls would rip him apart-but he would have his fun whilst it lasted. Something told him, that this wasn't himself but he didn't care. Snow, Yuj and Maqui were laughing hysterically, and Lebreau was fighting back a smile.

"What else did she want?" Yuj laughed.

"Only one thing." Hope said matter of factly.

"What was that?" Snow said. Hope noticed that all three of them were leaning in, massive grins on their faces. Lebreau was also leaning in, although trying not to be noticed. Lightning and Serah were still giving death glares, but this time not only at Hope, but also Maqui, Yuj and Snow. They were _all_ dead later. Somehow, this comforted him-he wasn't the only one in the firing line.

"She wanted me to drag her into the nearest alley, and take her. Hardcore." Everyone was still. Lightning and Serah had stopped their glares, and their faces displayed absolute shock. He clearly wasn't the kid they remembered. Hope wondered, in a detached sort of way if he had gone too far, but seeing Snow, Maqui and Yuj struggling to breathe in between fits of laughter, and Lebreau openly giggling he decided to up the ante.

"Both ways." Hope uttered.

It was as if a bomb had gone off. Snow fell from his chair, laughter openly racking his body. Maqui collapsed on the floor, bringing Yuj down as well, laughing hysterically and Lebreau had tears falling from her eyes. Serah looked hugely embarrassed, but Lightning- Lightning was a different story. Apparently, his outburst had shifted all blame back to him, and away from the others. Hope gulped. Tonight wasn't going to be fun. Not at all.

Kara had turned even redder if that was possible and looking at him with stunned and outraged eyes. She looked even angrier that Lightning, if that was even possible. Her anger was directed at all the men, not just at Hope. As Snow got up, still laughing he saw the glares of the two women. Lightning to one side and Kara to the other. Looking around he saw Yuj and Maqui also sitting up, albeit with great difficulty. All it took was Yuj to stare at the two women and back at Snow, Hope and Maqui and a chain reaction had been set off. Yuj started laughing again, bent over the table, as tears streamed down his face. He was laughing so hard that he could barely breathe. The women's two glares only made it worse. The harder they glared, the harder Yuj laughed. Unfortunately, Snow caught Yuj's eye, and began laughing too. He started wheezing as it overtook him, water forming in his eyes. It didn't take long for both Maqui and Hope himself to get infected; both laughing, until it physically hurt, but not being able to stop. The problem started when Lebreau snorted loudly in her drink, and not being able to keep it in any longer starting giggling hysterically too; splashing her half-drunk water over the table. She put one hand on her stomach as she started to cry with laughter. Serah's embarrassed flush eventually faded and she started to smile slightly. The smile grew, as she saw her husband rolling on the floor, Lebreau's wild eyes and messed hair and finally she burst into a laughing fit when she saw Hope attempt to stand up and get knocked down by a careless waiter, boiling water, presumably for tea, pouring down on him. His combination of howling in pain, and shouting in laughter finally set her off. His fate only created another round of giggling fits. The opposite was the case with Lightning. She stood up immediately, and rushed over to the fallen martyr. She had on her face a mixture of a glare and a worried frown. Her glare disappeared completely when she saw Hope's scalded hand, and she stood up one arm on her waist. The injury was clearly not serious, but scalds that big could cause some pain. _Good. Teach him a lesson_.

An hour and a half later, when everything was settled, Snow, and the boys were clearly nervous. Kara was still looking as angry as ever, and Lebreau and Serah were putting on their most intimidating stares. Hope suspected that it was to make up for laughing so hard. The food had come shortly after that unfortunate waiter had the luck to crash into him, and they had finished eating nearly fifteen minutes ago. His hand was seriously hurting, even after washing it under the cold tap. The last fifteen minutes had been spent in extremely awkward silence.

Every time Hope had tried to apologise to Kara, she had cut him off with a disgusted look. The fact that he didn't look particularly sorry probably didn't help. He had no doubt that she knew that if he could turn back time he would have done the same thing-perhaps say something even more outrageous. Hope decided that when a girl's eyes glinted in that fashion, it was best to stay clear. Surprisingly the only girl not angry or pretending to be angry, whilst actually mightily amused was Lightning. She actually had a tiny smile on her face. Hope growled to himself. He thought he knew girls, but then something like this happened! _Why the hell was she smiling?_

It was at that moment Snow got up. "I know everyone's coming back to our place, but I think we should go now. You know to _ahum_ take care of Hope's wound. Plus Hope hasn't seen Hazel yet. I _know_ he is dying to. _Ahum_"

Hope took the hint. "Yeah, _ahum_ dying too-and so is Yuj and Maqui. _Ahum_."

Kara darkly muttered something about Hope being a pervert, and not wanting to corrupt Hazel. Hope stuck his tongue at her and squinted his eyes.

"They saw her last week." Serah said. Maqui clearly picking up on Hope's hint, said, "Yeah well we miss her. What's wrong with that?"

"Nothing except she vomited all over you."

"_Ahum"_

"Yeah well maybe we like that." Yuj said. "It's cute when she vomits! _Ahum_."

"I can't wait." Hope said in an excited voice. He really did want to Hazel.

"Whatever, and what the hell is wrong with you guys _humming _and_ arghahing_? Weirdo's"

Snow grinned and walked out, followed by his entourage. The girls watched darkly from back at the table. Most of the dark looks were concentrated on Hope's back.

As Hope, left he saw, opposite the restaurant his new bar, the Light and Shadow. He had checked his balance on the way to dinner, and it showed that extra money in his account had come in. He officially had an income. He would have to sort the place out-but tonight really wasn't the right time.

As soon as the men left, the cool composure of Serah and Lebreau vanished. Big smiles lit their faces, and Serah actually giggled.

"Who knew? And Hope no less!" Serah laughed. She gave Lightning a light elbow in the ribs. "Why didn't you tell us he had changed so much?"

In response Lightning frowned, "I didn't know myself. I mean I knew he had obviously changed, but tonight was ridiculous...unacceptable. I've only known _this_ Hope for a day or two, and I already don't like it." Her voice held the promise of endless pain for Hope, and Lebreau actually shivered.

"Did you see him drinking that Bywear? I didn't know he was old enough. The way he gulped it down, not even I could do that!" Lebreau muttered conspiratorially. Lightning looked up at her, and turned her head slightly. "He's only sixteen, there's no way he's allowed alcohol. What were those idiot waiters thinking?"

"Sixteen?" Lightning looked around in surprise to see Kara. Those were the first words to leave her mouth since Hope had acted so outrageously. Strangely all trace of anger had left her face, and she looked confused, and perhaps a little disappointed.

"Yeah, his birthday was on Thursday-the same day his father was kidnapped." Serah said in a sombre voice. "I don't understand why he acts so cheerful, he doesn't seem sad at all, and he doesn't seem to be even considering revenge! It's only been two years, why is there no Operation Bartholomew?" Serah asked, tears in her eyes and distress in her voice.

"No way Hope's going to leave his father to the Police,"

"Has nobody called, no one wants to know where he is?" Kara asked. For someone who had the butt of such a cruel joke, she seemed remarkably interested in Hope.

"He's called all of his friends I think," Lightning replied. "I've had several phone calls, from various people, asking if Hope feels like coming home. He has a few relatives who want him. They won't be calling again." Lightning's voice gave no room for misinterpretation.

"Claire! You didn't...didn't threaten them did you?" Serah was aghast.

"If he had wanted to stay with his relatives and be coddled, he would have gone there. He came here-to us instead. I won't give him away, and abandon him. I won't."

"We'll I can't say I'm surprised you decided to keep him. Maybe he'll be good for you-if there's any one who can stop you working so much its Hope. Maybe now you'll actually have time to visit us." Serah tried giving her sister a weak smile, but there were still tears in her eyes. It appeared Hope was causing her a lot of distress.

Lightning just wanted to get back to Serah's place._ Who knew what that idiot was doing with his hand? _He didn't have training in burn management, and regenerative tissue control! Lightning hoped he wasn't stupid enough to put any creams on it. The only real thing to do was run under cool water-not ice-the last thing she wanted to deal with was freeze burn; and apply a form of extremely diluted Pictoarial Toride serum, to kill any bacteria. She knew Hope was far from stupid, but it seemed that when males congregated together, they did stupid things, and with the men Hope was with, he could do some downright idiotic things. Impatiently tapping her feet on the floor, she moved a plate of eaten chicken bones to one side, and looked around. She clearly hadn't missed much.

"Are you then his formal guardian?" Kara asked.

"He doesn't need one, but I have been sent all his records. They came in this morning," Lightning said.

"Like what?"

"Well all his school grades and reports, his birth certificate and his passport," Lightning replied.

"Ooh, I bet he's a straight A student!" Serah said. Lightning rolled her eyes.

"Hardly. He appears to be disliked by just about every teacher, judging from what they write about him, and he gets mostly B and C's. I'll show you next time you come around. Some of their comments are actually...amusing."

"Have you told him yet?" Lebreau asked. At Lightning's inquisitive look, she sighed, "have you told him that you don't mind him staying with you?"

"I'll have to talk to him about that at some point, amongst other things." She replied, and both sisters gave each other meaningful looks.

"What?"

"Hope refused to visit us for two years! We called every other day, but something was always up! We need answers." Serah said menacingly. Lebreau looked away. As much as Serah seemed rosy on the exterior, she was still a Farron.

"What about school?" Kara asked.

"I was thinking about that as well, but I have no idea where to send him. There's no way I can afford to pay for his education, and I am not sending him to some crappy state provisioned school." Lightning's voice was firm.

"Send him to New Bodhum High sis. Snow and I'll pay for it." Serah said.

"But..."

"No buts. He isn't your responsibility. He's all of our responsibilities. Nora is an official branch of the military, and as the General, you wouldn't believe how much they pay Snow. Plus we don't want Hope to give all his gratitude to you." Serah teased.

"Don't tell me he still wants Hope to be his Second-in-command," Lightning sighed.

"When he turns eighteen, yeah," she replied.

"Why?"

"Why are you asking me? Ask him."

"You all seem to know Hope very well," Kara said. "Has he always been that good looking?" Everyone stopped to look at her. Only the faint flush in Serah and Lebreau's cheeks gave away that they had thought along the same line.

"You're not angry with him?" Lebreau asked.

"It's kinda hard to stay angry with someone who looks that good. I pretended to be angry, so I could stare at him. Besides, mild mannered people are boring."

"Kara, he told everyone that you were begging him to screw you!"

"It's funny, he actually looked sick and pale when I saw him yesterday. But today those words are ringing home." Kara said with a mischievous grin.

"You wouldn't, he's only sixteen!" Serah gasped.

"You think that's going to stop girls at his new school? If he hasn't already lost his virginity, guaranteed he'll have lost it by the end of the year."

Lightning looked at Kara in disbelief. The conversation had turned beyond awkward, and she could feel her cheeks starting to heat up. Lebreau and Serah's were already crimson. In an attempt to change, the conversation Lightning brought up the money Hope had given her.

"Yeah, I made a bet with my friend that I could earn a hundred gil from begging on the streets, whilst he would earn only half that working ten hours in a shop! You should have seen his face when I showed him over two thousand gil!"

"How?" Lightning whispered. She was brought out of her incredulous contemplation when she heard Serah talking to Lebreau. Kara still held a smile. Lightning was starting to like the woman less.

"Not good looking, gorgeous, with those stunning green emeralds..." Serah sighed.

"And silver bangs..."Lebreau whispered.

"What! This is Hope we're talking about! And Serah you should be ashamed-what would Snow say?" Lightning sounded outraged, but Serah merely raised her hand and flicked it in her sister's face.

"Don't act like that Light."

Lightning refused to join in the conversation after that. She called for the bill, and after waiting twenty minutes dragged the three girls out. They had stopped talking about Hope, but had entered a discussion about sex-something Lightning did not want to get into. Kara was boasting about how she had done it in a hotel elevator, and something about being caught by a bellboy.

Lightning stopped listening after that.


	6. Medical training and the womanizing T

_**Medical training and the womanizing Titan**_

The front door opened and Hope rushed in clutching his hand. Looking wildly around he tried to find the kitchen, rushing past a dazzled babysitter and strafing around the sofas, uncertain of where to go and what to do.

What had started out as a slight pain had quickly turned to agony, when he had tripped over a loose pavement that jutted out of the ground, outside Snow's house. He had flung out his arms to protect his body, but unfortunately, his arm had collapsed as soon as the burnt flesh touched the cold ground. Losing balance, he had scraped his hand along the rough pavement, as he rolled on his back. As Hope had got up clutching his arm in pain, he had swung it away from him as hard as he could, hoping the breeze created would soothe the pain. Instead, his hand had hit one of Yuj's hook-buttons, on his coat. _Who the fuck wore razor sharp hooks on their coat? Yuj was dead! _The burnt skin had been torn off, and now half the skin on his hand was gone, exposing muscle and bone. The pain was so much that Hope could barely think, everything was a blur and sound was indistinct. Snow had given him a plastic bag to put his hand in, whilst he had raised his hand, which the security system scanned. The bag did not hide all of the blood, and he dimly remembered hearing Yuj say he was in shock. _Well fuck Yuj! He thinks this is shock? Wait till I grab that coat of his, and rip off his balls off using his stupid hook buttons! _

Snow forced Hope to sit on the floor, cross-legged, whilst he ordered Maqui to fetch the champagne bucket, "And take the bottles out!" Snow yelled. Good, Hope thought. Ice. Ice was what he needed; at least Snow knew what he was doing-Snow would make sure he was alright. He felt Snow lift his hand, take the plastic bag off, ignoring his wince and sharp intake of breath and gently place it in the ice. He felt someone else pour water in the metal container, and he sighed as the pain went down. His eyes were no longer open, and his hand was starting to go numb. Numb was good. Numb was better than pain. He dimly felt someone's arms around his shoulder, lying him down; his head being rested on someone's lap. Hope didn't care, as he tried to ignore the pain.

He was suddenly jerked awake when he felt someone pour water on his face. "Hey Hope, wake up, wake up! Lightning and the others are five minutes away, and they're going to freak out enough, without seeing you passed out on Yuj's lap. Snow's putting Hazel to bed, but he'll be down in a minute. Stay awake!" He distantly heard Maqui say.

_YUJ? He was lying on that bastard's lap? Unacceptable! _He tried to wriggle free, but the pain returned and he groaned, losing all strength. He was fully awake, and the pain had returned. He gritted his teeth and tried to look in the bucket, but it was too far away.

"Maqui!" Snow shouted, as he raced down the stairs. "I looked on the internet! We can save Hope! Go into the cupboard and take out all the creams and tablets, and bring them here." Snow said. He looked over at Hope. "Lucky thing Serah is a nurse, or you my friend would be in a whole heap of trouble! Don't worry Hope- we got your back."

Hope felt himself relax. All they needed to do was put all the medicine on his hand and one of them was bound to work. His hand would be fine.

"Yuj, you piece of shit raise me up so I can see the bucket!" Hope ordered. Yuj obliged by grabbing Hope's jeans and hauling him up, so he was in a sitting position. Yuj still had his arms around him, and Hopes head was still resting on him, but now he could see the bucket.

Snow systematically opened all the burn creams, and discarded the rest. Then he looked anxiously at Maqui. "Do you think we can just squeeze them into the water? That way Hope doesn't need to take his hand out."

Maqui nodded, "Sounds good." Snow nodded to himself, and started pouring in the different forms of cream, until the ice water was a creamy milky slop. The milky water, started to turn brown, and began to sizzle.

Hope started shaking uncontrollably, and howling in pain. Snow stepped back, confusion on his face, as the blood drained away.

"No Snow, the pain is good; it means the medicine is working!" Yuj said enthusiastically. _Fucking Yuj! _Hope thought in despair. His hand was burning and he felt like screaming-he had stopped howling when Maqui had given him a squishy ball to bite.

It was at that moment that the women decided to come in, large smiles on their faces. Serah and Kara who had clearly been giggling, stopped at the sight of all the blood on the floor, and faces turned white when the saw Hope lying on Yuj, Snow by his side and Maqui stirring some bucket, which they had put his hand in.

Serah and Kara rushed forwards to see what was wrong, whilst Lightning took in the room, all the blood, and finally the body of Hope. She also happened to take in the figure of Snow, whom she marched to, a glare already on her face. Lebreau, who was the last one in, took one look at all the blood and at Hope, before screaming and running out of the house; cautiously peering in. She eventually edged closer to Hope, wondering what had happened.

Serah glared at Yuj, before grabbing Hope, and with help from Kara hauling him to his feet. She then directed him to the kitchen, his wet hand dripping blood and dirty brown water all over the floor. Lightning walked straight up to Snow and demanded to know what was going on.

"All you had to do was look after him for an hour! You couldn't even manage that?" Lightning said in a dangerously quiet voice.

"His hand will be fine! We put it in ice-cold water, and then poured all those burn creams in..." Snow scoffed pointing to several empty tubes. He did not notice Lightning's face get darker and darker. He did notice when she punched his face, knocking him to the floor. Snow got up warily, eyeing her fists. Lightning did not punch him again, but rather kicked his front leg, with a side sweep, sending him sprawling. Giving him one final glare, she walked calmly into the kitchen.

Half an hour later, Hope emerged from the kitchen. He found all the men sitting around the sofa's.

"What did we do wrong?" Snow asked.

"I don't know, Serah mentioned something about freeze-burn. They're pretty pissed, though it beats me why. What's the use of burn medicine if you don't put it on?" Hope replied, holding his limp hand up forlornly.

"Oh Hope! You better watch out. If you're not careful, you'll be forced to go to school." Maqui said.

"What? No way! I'm sixteen; I don't have to go anymore!" Hope replied hotly.

"Yeah! Come join Nora! You can start training," Yuj said excitedly. Hope cast a baleful glare at he who dared speak.

"Shut the fuck up Yuj. It's your fault my hand is ripped apart." Hope said, looking away.

"Who told you to swing your arms at me then?" Yuj said defensively.

"Dumb fuck."

"Oh shut up Hope-you're such a fucking girl." Yuj said scathingly.

"See? He's such a beast. My hand is all torn because of him, and I don't even get a sorry!"

"Hey! Keep the language down guys!" Snow said. Both Hope and Yuj, stopped glaring at each other, and turned their eyes to the tall man sitting relaxed on the sofa, legs on the coffee table, with a cushion tucked underneath.

"And you!" Hope said directing his anger to Snow. "It's all ..."

Serah held Hope's arm and injected him with a quick-shot serum. None of the guys knew what it was but it calmed him down, to an almost super relaxed state.

"He was in shock, he just needed that to calm down," She said matter-of-factly.

"Don't people collapse, when their in shock?" Maqui asked.

"Idiot!" Serah muttered as she stalked off, back to the kitchen.

"We're putting on a movie! Hurry up!" Snow yelled.

Hope felt peaceful, and calm. His left hand had been treated and bandaged by Serah, and he moved to the sofa, opposite the TV- where all the men were sitting. He no longer felt any desire to argue. They had cleaned the house up long since. The film was on the start menu-they were clearly waiting for everyone. A few minutes later, the women emerged from the kitchen.

They saw Hope, but the women behind him stopped any words coming out. Snow was still casting baleful looks at Lightning, and Yuj was anxiously looking at Hope. _Son of a bitch should be scared!_ But already his anger with Yuj was dissipating, and he took a seat in-between Yuj and Maqui. Maqui took Hope's hand looking at the bandage, before a shout from Serah made him stop.

"Hope, come sit on this sofa, away from them. That wound is never going to heal if they keep touching it!" Serah said. She made her way to Snow, and sat by his side.

"So how did this happen? Last time I looked you were burnt-what happened to all of your skin?" Serah asked. Hope told the full story, and by the time he had finished Lightning was glaring at Yuj, and Serah sighed about it being too late to change things now. Hope turned to his left and saw Kara sitting next to him.

"Look Kara, I'm really...," Hope began, but he was cut off by the beautiful woman.

"Shush Hope-I think you've suffered enough." Kara laughed. Hope cast her a nervous glance, as if ascertaining whether or not she was telling the truth. In the end, deciding she was, he sighed in relief, and turned to watch the TV. Lightning joined him on the right, and Lebreau squeezed in between Kara and Hope, resting her thighs on him.

"Cous, I **cannot** believe you have a Holo-TV! I can face any direction, and still be watching what's happening!" Kara laughed, facing the ceiling as if to demonstrate her point.

"What are we watching?" Hope asked.

"The Adventures of Titan." Snow replied. Dread was already forming in Hope's stomach. He had seen a movie similar to that before.

"With Hagreades?"

"Yup. How do you know? I haven't seen it before, but I got it yesterday at the mall. It was 18 rated-think you can handle it?" Snow teased.

"I've seen it before, and actually I don't think it's the best movie to watch right now. It's...Well...I mean," Hope didn't know what to say. The movie was a comedy slash soft-core eroticism; he had seen it last year with Charka and Richie. The plot revolved around a marauding womanizer named John Hubris; so-called Titan due to the size of his penis. It was really not the funniest movie he had ever seen. It was brilliant to watch with friends, but a real no go if any girls were around. Unfortunately, he was sitting on a sofa full of them-with no way out. Sighing, he resigned himself to his fate. The movie had started.

_Hubris was walking through some stupid corridor, and he could hear a woman moaning_. Hope turned his head, and he saw Snow looking excited. Fool probably thought he was going to save the girl-not fuck her brains out! Yuj was looking uncomfortable-he probably realized where this was going. No one else appeared to have caught on yet. _Hubris walked calmly towards the moaning, the camera zooming in to his crotch. A large bulge was already forming. _There could be no doubt now. Snows excited look was starting to shrink, Maqui looked embarrassed and Yuj was squirming. Hope didn't dare think of the girls on his sofa. It appeared that no one was willing to get up and close it though-or say anything. _Hubris began to lick his lips and unbuckle his belt. As they fell to the floor, the audience was treated to a look at his naked buttocks, before the camera cut to his face. He went on all fours, and uttered his catchphrase: "Time to Titan" Running on all fours he leapt into the room, from whence all the moaning was coming. The cameras cut back outside the door. The window on the door was covered in a weird opaque film, that stopped light. The shadows were still very visible, and it appeared Hubris was a very excited man, as his cock grew longer and thicker._

Absolutely no doubt now. Everyone was looking extremely embarrassed. He turned to look at the girls on his sofa. Kara was smiling, Lebreau was a deep red, and Lightning was starting to turn pink. There was worse to come. Anytime now..._The moans deepened, till the woman was screaming in pleasure. One final scream later and everything went still. Titan emerged, fully naked, and his abnormally large appendix in full view of the audience. _This kind of shock humour really could be funny-Hope had fallen over laughing when he watched it with his friends. Now though he just felt hugely embarrassed.

Lightning got up quickly and turned the TV off. Her cheeks were pink, which oddly matched her strawberry blonde hair.

"I didn't know...I swear! It said _full of action and laugh out loud humour_!" Snow muttered weakly. Lightning grabbed Hope and pulled him towards the door. "We're going." She said. "See you later Serah."

"Bye guys." Hope shouted, as he grinned at Snow, pulling his hand sideways against his throat slowly. Maqui, Yuj, Kara and Lebreau also stood up and followed Lightning. Snow was left sitting alone with a livid Serah. "Good luck Snow!" Yuj shouted.

"He's gonna need it," Maqui laughed.

They all let themselves out, as Snow and Serah argued on the sofa. Hope waved goodbye to the others, as he followed Lightning.

"Well that was fun, what do you say Light?"

She didn't reply. Hope gulped. This couldn't be good.


	7. A long talk

_**Quick note: the first 30,000 words or so of the story have already been written, so I should be able to upload a new chapter everyday. They just need to be checked and rechecked. After that though it will be one a week, unless its holiday e.g Christmas or Easter, where it should be much faster. Right now the story will probably be around 500,000 words. Hope life is going ok for everyone**_

_**Insert for discaimers: I don't own any characters from the FF13 universe, which belongs to Square Enix. **_

_**A long talk**_

_**11:12pm**_

"Everything here is so close," Hope said. "Not like back in Retrima, where we couldn't walk anywhere. The journey to school was like half an hour!" They were walking back from Serah's house.

"It's the same here Hope, actually I think you'll be travelling for longer than that. New Bodhum High is over a hundred miles away; it'll likely take you three quarters of an hour to get there."

"Hundred miles away! What the hell Light! That must be on the other side of the city!" Hope exclaimed. "Besides I've decided I'm not going to school anymore." He added in a near-whisper.

"That area of Bodhum is nothing like here," she continued, completely ignoring his last statement. Curiosity overtook Hope, and he plunged for the bait.

"Why? New Bodhum is just a large strip, stretching across the coast of the Adhol Sea. It doesn't extend very far inland-as I was coming here from Retrima there was mostly desert. I reckon it can't be greater than ten miles from the sea, before the city ends."

"16.3 miles, and it's only been two years Hope. Even with all the technology they found down here, there are limits. How big is Retrima anyway?" Lightning asked caustically; Hope wondered what he had done this time. They walked on in silence, until Light's house was in view.

_**11:23pm**_

Hope sat at the dining room table, opposite Lightning, sipping some coffee she had made for him. Behind him, lay the huge hologram TV, the entertainment system and even a washing machine that had probably been thrown in for free. The deliverymen had been waiting for the last five hours, and had been furious with Hope. Lightning had thought there must have been some kind of mistake-she could never have afforded a ten thousand gil TV, which she barely watched anyway. It had been quite funny watching her try and find her gunblade, before realizing it wasn't there.

Surprisingly she hadn't glared at him-just looked stunned. She had helped him move it in, and told him to leave it behind the table whilst she made them both a drink. She now sat down opposite him, her mug steaming.

"So, Hope. Are you going to tell me what's going on?" she said.

"Wh...What?" said Hope, genuinely caught off-guard by the question. He had a feeling he knew where this was going though.

"Hope!" she said in exasperation. "You gave 2000 gil to Kara yesterday, and now I find a huge generator that can create a hologram the size of my house! Not only that, but there was all that other things too! I saw the bill Hope-it was over fifty thousand gil; which is more than I make in a year!"

Hope looked sharply up at Lightning. _Since when did she talk like that? _He felt tempted to tell her, but memories of the previous day came back. She still saw him as a child, and felt that she was still his mentor figure. She would probably have the money taken away, if she found out, and think it was for his own good-after all what kind of a sixteen year old had nearly 400 billion gil? If she even suspected what he had planned…It wasn't worth the risk. He looked down at his mug.

"I had savings, from you know…before. When I saw Kara I felt sorry for her," Hope replied trying to stop himself grinning. When he continued to stare aimlessly at his mug, Lightning raised her hands in frustration.

"Don't want to tell me? Fine. But that brings us on to something else. School, and where you are going to stay." Lightning told him. As expected Hope's head snapped up.

"School? I don't want to go school!" Hope looked over at her cautiously. "You found me somewhere where I can stay?"

"About that-I'm willing to allow you to stay here with me. As long as you behave, keep the house clean, keep to yourself, and don't bother me." She said.

"What! Are you kidding me! I can't live like that!" Hope exclaimed, a little hurt. _She didn't want him to bother her? As in talk?_

"That was a joke Hope." Lightning said, obviously flustered that he hadn't got it. Hope gaped at her. A joke? Light?

"So I can stay with you? It'll be like old times again!" Hope got up, suddenly excited.

"Which brings us back to school. Stop looking like that Hope. You have to go, at least until you're eighteen-no one's making you go to university. Serah and I have decided to send you to New Bodhum High. Serah and Snow have agreed to pay the fees. Hey! It's only for two years."

"You mentioned that stupid school, earlier!"

"And?" she replied.

"When do I start?" Hope said wearily. There was absolutely no point arguing-besides he had always wanted to know what school would be like if he honestly didn't give a shit. Now he would find out.

"I've got to call them, and see, probably the day after tomorrow. But Hope there's something else we have to talk about." Hope looked at her in confusion.

"What?" he asked.

"What were you doing for the last two years? How many times did we call you Hope?" she said, a touch of anger in her voice.

"I was…busy and besides Retrima is so far away. Anyway what's wrong with only calling? You could have visited me you know! Why should it only be me who had to visit?"

"Because everyone lives _here_- except for you. Unless you're trying to suggest that we all come and visit Retrima." Lightning said.

"Why not?" Hope replied defiantly. "You've never been there have you?"

"I could say the same thing to you about New Bodhum. What was the real reason?"

"Oh! Come on Light!" Hope said heatedly. "You can't blame me. I just wanted to forget it had happened! I had my own life, with my own friends, and New Bodhum was over a thousand miles away!"

"That's an hour by speed rail." Lightning said flatly.

"It took me four hours," Hope said refusing to give in.

"That's because you didn't travel by speed rail Hope," she said. "Anyway, let's not get into that now-you're here and that's all that matters. Serah and I also wanted to know what had happened last year with the blackout. No one told us, and by the time we were ready to go to Retrima, you had been found."

"It's nothing really. I fell asleep one night, and woke up in my bed two weeks later with no memory of what had happened. I go downstairs, and Dad is overjoyed to see me, saying I had disappeared for two weeks, and he had everyone searching for me. You have no idea how weird it feels to go to sleep and wake up the next morning, only to find out it _isn't_ the next morning."

"You think you were kidnapped?" Lightning suddenly tensed, and Hope smelt danger in the air.

"I don't know, and to be honest with you I'm really trying not to think about it." Hope said.

"Hope, at that restaurant today, you ordered a beer like it was no big deal. I didn't even know until I was told after you had gone. Do you usually drink alcohol?" Lightning was studying him closely. Hope felt blood rush to his cheeks.

"What?

"You're still a child Hope. I don't want to see you drinking again until you're twenty one. Understand?" Lightning said firmly.

"21? The legal age is 18!"

"Well 18 then-but not until then."

_If only she knew what I got up to back home_! He could still feel blood going to his face from Lightning's most recent question, and he decided to put the pressure on her for a while.

"Oh and Light? You can trust me for sure, to hold down the fort, when you go out for romantic evenings with your boyfriend. Don't worry, I've got your back!" Hope's amused tone was not lost on Lightning who looked up at him, her ears starting to turn a very light shade of pink, that almost matched her strawberry blonde hair.

"No but seriously, the whole reason I went commando with those jeans that you threw away was because there were no men's clothes in the house!" Hope said.

"I bought you new clothes," she said. Hope blinked at her, wondering if this was another one of her jokes. Her face was a perfect mask, so he couldn't tell.

"That's not the point Light!" Hope sighed.

"What about you Hope? You can't say anything to me when you don't have a girlfriend yourself!" Hope looked at her in shock._ Jessica_

"Jessica!" he whispered inaudibly. _I have to call her._

"Yeah, but I'm still young! It doesn't matter so much," Hope said standing up.

"Where are you going?" Lightning asked.

"I've just remembered that I've a quick call to make." Hope replied, walking towards his room.

He flung his door open and closed it gently behind him. He opened the door to his terrace and stepped outside into the wonderfully humid air. The moon was shining tonight, lighting up the sky a brilliant dark blue; shining with the light of a million twinkling stars; up high and above-watching.

"Connect to network jlaix. Location Retrima," Hope said. A twirling sound started behind him.

"Service requested. AI Home System Basic online. Attempting to connect to jlaix mobile; location: Retrima. Analysing voice patterns. Confirmed. _**Error**_: Password required to connect to jlaix."

"Password Halima Foxtrot 2" Hope said dully.

"Analysing…" The AI said. "Confirmed. Logging you in. Please wait. **_Notification_**: Phone is out of battery. Please wait a few minutes while I charge it remotely."

"Stop that!" Hope said in annoyance. "You're talking like a robot!"

"Would username jlaix, like to discontinue current processes?"

"No!" Hope almost yelled. Who knew what this dumb piece of shit AI would do? "My name is Hope."

"Error. This AI is not a thesaurus or dictionary. Definitions of Hope can only be loosely defined. For a more complete analysis, please purchase other AI systems from Avid Systems Inc. Extracting loose definition keyware."

"Piece of shit Arsefuck." Hope muttered. _ I have to upgrade this_.

"Analysing… No definition of pieceofshit, but a definition of arsefuck has been found."

"What? No thank you. Just concentrate on charging the phone."

"This system is able to multi-task. Arsefuck is the process of inserting the penis into the anus, in a fucking motion. It is also…Notification: jlaix the phone you requested to log into has fully charged. Connecting…Connection complete."

"Access contact list, select contact; codename Jessica Hyanders"

"Contact found."

"Dial."

"Connecting to jessh-y-a; Retrima location."

"Note this is a private number. Authorisation is required," The AI said.

"S_T_T_Y-1222837"

"Connecting."

"Hello?" Jessica sounded a little tearful. "Is that you Hope?"

"It's me Jess," he said as he gazed at the full moon.

"Oh my god! Hope! I missed you so much! Are you okay? Where are you? Everyone's really worried. The school is abuzz!" Jessica whispered. "Please come home."

"Jessica, you know what happened to my dad. I've moved to New Bodhum to be closer with family. I want to come back-I really do, but I can't."

"You're living with family now?" she replied.

"I'm staying with relatives. If I could come home I would." Hope replied.

"You can't just move! Everyone you know, everything you care about is here!" Jessica replied.

"It's not like I can't come and visit."

"But you won't will you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm never going to see you again, am I?

"I swear to you that we will see each other again. I swear it."

Hope talked. He talked until there was nothing left to talk about, and he still talked. They both knew that this was the last conversation they would ever have, in a relationship. When they said goodbye, it was not only to each other; but also to their relationship.

Hope looked back at the sky. The moon still shone her pale light; reflecting everything in a soft silvery sheen. The sky was no longer blue, but the darkest black, and the stars no longer twinkled, but sat there, pouring out a dim light; as if basking in his misery. There were no clouds up above, and the night was starting to get cold. The small light reflected off the tears slowly flowing down Hope's cheeks, illuminating it as it made its way down Hope's cheek.

_Goodbye Jessica_.


	8. Time for a swim

_**Time for a little swim**_

Hope looked around at his room. He hated it. In fact he hated the entire house. The only good thing in it was Lightning. It was sterile, cold and uninviting.

Surprisingly, his room was a delicious creamy colour, something which he suspected she wasn't was behind, because the rest of the house was a harsh white, and all the furniture was white, aside from the tables and chairs. Now that he had billions of gil he would make this house a home. Something nagged on his mind that people didn't just suddenly get that rich, but he pushed it to the back of his mind. He had been worrying for the last few days that people would knock on the door, and arrest him. He hadn't thought of it last night-something he could thank Jessica for.

There was no way he planned on telling anyone, even Lightning. She was after all Guardian Corp, and telling her was a sure fire way of getting that money taken away. But she didn't need to know where the money came from. Hope was more than happy to allow her to think that he was using money he had saved up to pay for everything. Sitting up, he accessed the web com in his new room. It was time to spice his _den _up. He could deal with the rest of the house later. The fact that Lightning apparently had the month off didn't help much either. He could hear her moving around downstairs, clearly unused to such lengths of time without activity.

"AI?" Hope called out.

"Activated jlaix. What is required?"

"Tell me a joke." Hope said.

"Not within functional parameters, but the system has a record of one. It was recorded because the key processing system believed it to be one of substantial wit."

Hope sat up. This could be good. "Go on."

"What is brown and sticky?"

"Oh come on! Everyone knows that it's a stick. AI did you not see me yesterday? I need to be cheered up!"

"Solution given to the joke entitled What is brown and sticky is incorrect."

"Really?"

"The answer is congealed mass-wired. Haarhahah! Apologies."  
>"What's a congealed mass-wire?"<p>

"I don't know-that's why it's funny. Apologies. I will redirect myself to my primary programming protocol."

"Whatever you piece of junk. I miss Arnie."

On his web com, Hope decided to do some shopping. The bed he had now was good enough-but he had always wanted an extravagant one.

He purchased a fifteen thousand gil bed and mattress. It was circular, with a diameter of ten feet. Even though his room was the biggest room in the house, his new bed would take up half the space. He didn't care-it would be worth it. He had always wanted a gargantuan bed but his father had always refused. He had said why waste the money when you could spend it on other things? Hope now thought to himself-why not? The screen now said:

_Thank you for your purchase on behalf of Kupar Specialist Furniture's Ltd._

_Your purchase is the King Behemoth Circular bed, with AMP rotational technology; the King Behemoth Circular Memory Foam Mattress _

_The following has been taken out of your account: 15025 gil_

_The cost of delivery is 25 gil_

_Account no. 12345323_

_Account holder name: Estheim H._

_**Note: Delivery is pending. Please allow a week or more for delivery. For additional information see printed receipt.**_

Hope closed the web com, and smiled. At least his bed was on the way. He had thought of getting Lightning one, but he was unsure of how she would react. He wanted to slowly change the house, giving Lightning a new bed after she had gotten used to his presence. It was still a shock to her. He knew that much. It must be, after living alone for so long.

Stretching, a gold handle caught Hope's eye. It was a door, but coloured the same as the walls, so as to be camouflaged. He had missed it until now simply because he had never really looked at his room properly. Opening it, he found a dusty bathroom. _It's probably never been used! _ Hope smiled. Now he didn't have to trek halfway across the house to use the shower. _ Why didn't Lightning tell me? Probably because she was too busy._

Sighing, Hope gingerly entered the dusty room, brushing off a few cobwebs. He opened one of the bay windows, and looked out onto the garden, laughing as the breeze tickled his face. The garden really was beautiful. The grass shone a brilliant green, as it was ruffled by the wind; a great contrast to the deep blue sky. A great oak tree lay at the far end of the garden, at the centre. Its brown trunk rising twenty feet in the air, and spreading its branches out. Beyond the garden, there was a walkway, where already people were walking down, despite the fact that it was only nine-twelve. Facing the walkway on one end were multitudes, of small stalls that were actually on the sand. They sold everything from seashells and surfer's necklaces to hot dogs. Beyond, them was the beach and then the clear blue sea. Hope could hear the waves crashing from the bathroom-he knew what he was going to do today! Hope had regularly been to the beach in Palumpolum, but he had never learnt how to surf. Usually he just messed around with his friends. That thought saddened him-he had so many good memories of being with them; but what could he do? He lived hundreds of miles away now.

"AI?" Hope said, dreading the reply.

"Acknowledged."

"Clean this bathroom."

"Select a destination for the transportation of debris."

"I don't give a fuck!"

"Not Valid."

"Urghh! Sigma 22-3."

"That is on the street outside. Are you sure this is an action you wish to take?"

"Yes." Hope growled.

The entire bathroom shone a brilliant blue before settling back. All traces of dirt and dust had now gone.

Carefully checking the bathroom for any signs of spiders, or insects; Hope stripped off his clothes and turned on the bathroom taps, gingerly checking the water with his hands. Hope sighed as the hot water washed over him. He still felt depressed, about yesterday, but he had calmed down sufficiently enough that he was confident he wouldn't start crying again. He was reluctant to go downstairs and face Lightning-yesterday had been one of the most embarrassing moments in his life. The effects of the regen serum had passed, and everything was coming together with a frightening clarity.

That was one of the main reasons why Hope wanted to go to the beach-to forget about Jessica, Charlie, John, Sam, Charka, Richie and all of the rest. He wanted to escape from everything, and everyone; and what better way to do that than spend the day trying to learn how to surf? If anything could distract him that surely could. Hope turned the tap off as the water started to lose its heat. He stepped out and grabbed his towel wrapping it around his body. The temperature outside was already starting to get uncomfortably hot, and it was only quarter to ten.

Entering his room, Hope shrugged his towel off and quickly dried himself. He dug into his cupboards and found some swimming trunks that Lightning had bought him and put them on quickly. Further rummaging through his cupboard and Hope found a dark grey t-shirt. He was forced to put it on, due to a lack of sun cream. He was _not _going out in that sun without protection. He was not going to get sunburn again-the last time had been too painful. Hope sighed at the door, and decided to go downstairs. He could hear Light rummaging around in the kitchen. He was surprised to see her drinking something that smelt like coffee and reading what looked like a magazine. _Maybe I was wrong, and she does know how to relax. Huh! _It was only as he got closer that he saw that in fact she was not reading a magazine, but the latest reports from the Guardian Corp. He thought of interfering, but decided against it. The last thing she needed was a sixteen year old telling her what to do; and besides she _had_ taken him in- it was probably best not to push too far. Lightning looked at him as he walked into the kitchen, a tiny look of confusion on her face as she saw him in his orange shorts and grey t-shirt.

"Going anywhere Hope?" Lightning asked.

"Yeah, I've decided to try and learn how to surf. Wanna come?" Hope said. It was worth a try. Lightning only shook her head, and pointed to her report. "Sorry Hope-I've got work to do. Try and be back before seven-we're going to Serah's place. Sazh is coming for dinner. Which remind me-these are yours." Lightning handed him a set of keys. At his curious glance, she sighed. "Hope they're a set of house keys, I had them cut for you yesterday. It's the reason I was delayed for dinner."

"So you had these cut for me, instead of getting me food?" Hope said with a smirk.

"Can it Hope!" Lightning said with a small smirk of her own. "I'm sorry I can't go, but beaches aren't really my thing."

The answer was exactly what Hope expected, and he shrugged and prepared to leave, but Lightning spoke again. "Hope I phoned New Bodhum High, and there's some bad news." Hope looked sharply at her. "What news?"

"It turns out that you can't just join a school year whenever you feel like it. I'm sorry Hope, but you'll have to start in September, at the beginning of the next academic year." Lightning said with a straight face. Hope suspected that she was amused.

"Light! That's great news!" Hope exclaimed. Lightning rolled her eyes at him, and for a moment her soldiers mask vanished, and Hope could almost swear he saw a small smile. Hope smiled back and turned towards the door. "Hope? Are...Are you okay? You know after yesterday?" Lightning asked, clearly unsure of what else to say.

"Yeah Light I'm fine." Hope said. As he was about to leave, he turned back to her. "And Light?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for asking," Hope said to her before walking out.

As Hope walked towards the beach walkway the heat hit him. Lightning's house was only thirty seconds or so from the beach, and soon Hope was walking on the hot, golden sand. The beach was nearly empty-it was a Monday and most people were either at work or at school. There were a few people though, scattered on the beach. Hope walked further down it, and soon heard a shout.

"Watch out! Hey! Watc..." Hope heard a voice shouting at him, and he turned around to face it. At that moment however, a hard ball slammed into his face and sent Hope sprawling on the floor. He landed heavily on his left hand, but strangely he felt no pain. Rolling on his back, and groaning he looked up at the sky and spat out some hot sand. He could already feel it burning his feet. _Damn it! He knew he shouldn't have brought sandals!_ Looking at his hand, he unwrapped the bandage and saw that the skin was back. It was as if he had never hurt it! Not prepared to deal with the repercussions, a still dazed Hope looked around, before snapping his vision back to his hand, as if expecting it to be bleeding and torn. The hand was still whole. _What? Impossible? What the shit?_ In his stunned shock, Hope didn't see anyone approaching.

"Hey! Man! I'm sorry, are you okay?" Hope looked up from his hand and saw a tall dark haired man approach him. He was wearing only a pair of dark green and black swimming shorts. On his neck he wore a surf necklace, and he had a number of bracelets on his hand. He looked down at Hope with concern. Behind him some other men were running up.

"Whoa! Your nose-its bleeding!" the man said. He held an arm to a still stunned Hope who took it, and slowly got up.

"Hey man! It's your nose that's the problem-not your hand. Here let me help you." The dark haired man said. His other friends caught up and surrounded Hope.

"I'm sor...sorry that I got in your way. I came here so I could learn how to surf, but I think I'll go home." Hope said still staring at his hand.

"There's no need to be shy man! We got your back! Say what's your name?" Hope looked past the dark haired man to see the blond man who had spoken. He was even taller- at least six and half feet, and he towered over Hope.

"Hope, Hope Estheim," he mumbled, trying to staunch the flow of blood.

"Well Hope, my name's Daniel, the tall one is Julius and the short one with the beard is Morgan." The dark haired man said. "You don't have to go home, you could hang with us if that's cool. And we could teach you to surf, easy."

"We haven't seen you around here before though," Julius said, rushing to hold Hope up, as he started to collapse. "Dan! Morg! Help! He's collapsed!"Hope vaguely felt his body being lifted as he was carried. He thought back to his hand as he fainted.

Hope opened his eyes, and stared straight into the brown eyes of Daniel. He blinked again, and pushed Daniel away with his hand. "What happened?"

"You fainted Hope. We dragged you here waiting for you to recover. Hope spluttered as he felt a straw go into his mouth, and he slurped on the cold drink despite himself. _What the hell?_

"Urghh!" Get off me. I'm not a fucking baby." Hope growled as he stood up. He tried not to think of his hand.

"So not so shy huh!" Morgan smiled. Daniel laughed and Julius started drinking Hope's drink. Hope snatched the drink away.

"I've only just come here on Thursday, so I haven't had time to get to know everyone yet. How old are you anyway?" Hope asked.

"I'm 20, Morgan is twenty one and Daniel is twenty-two. What about you?"

"Sixteen."

"No way! Dude you look way older than that." Daniel said.

"Old enough to drink?" Hope smiled.

"Hell yeah! I like the way this guy thinks!" Julius said. "Wanna surf? Then go get some girls?"

"If you can teach me, then yeah!" Hope grinned.

"Which one?"

"Both" Hope grinned, as his three new friends laughed.

"I'll teach him about surfing, but we all have to chip in, in order to give young Hope here girl lessons!" There was a general consensus, and agreement, along with high-fives.

"You can borrow my surfboard Hope." Morgan said, pointing to a green, black and orange one with white lining. Hope grinned and picked it up following Julius. Today was a new day-and ignoring his left hand he smiled, and blinked up at the golden Sun.


	9. Making a mark

_**Making a mark**_

Hope slipped off his sandals, kicking them under the reclining chairs. The white and gold sand was warm to the touch; though Hope supposed that was soon to change, when the afternoon sun really turned up the dial on thermometer. There was some sort of weird cooling shade, in the form of an umbrella set up; keeping everything out of the sun. None of the beaches at Retrima had had any, and before he followed Julius, he took a look at it.

"What is this?" he asked. Morgan who trying to pry open a beer without an opener, looked up.

"Huh?" he grunted.

"This?" Hope asked pointing to the strange device.

"Oh that. It's just a Nirvana."

"Nirvana?" Hope asked.

"Well it's actually called a sunlight diffuser, but we think Nirvana sounds cooler. Hey mate can you help me open this?" Morgan said.

"Why?"

"Because I want a drink-what do you mean why?" Morgan asked, frowning at the beer bottle; as if formulating a strategy.

"What? No not that. Why is the nirvy thing is called a sunlight diffuser? What does it do? Oh stop fussing over that bottle! Pass it here." Hope said exasperated. He popped open the lid with his teeth, and handed back the bottle.

"Are there none in Palumpolum?"

"Palumpolum? You mean Retrima?" Hope asked.

"What's the difference anyway?" Morgan asked while he drank the beer.

"Retrima is the area, whilst Palumpolum is the capital-just like New Bodhum is the area, whilst Eba is the capital here. Anyway tell me about the nirvy thing."

"The Nirvana?"

"Urgh Yes," Hope replied.

"Have they not reached Retrima yet? Weird. A science group found one in a depositary about 100 miles from here, and they figured it out I guess. It changes the amount of sunlight that is allowed through, depending on the time of the day." Morgan said.

"A science group?" Hope asked.

"Yeah, why?" he asked.

"I once was interested in science," Hope said.

"What happened?"

"Years of not paying attention, I suppose. Maybe if things had turned out differently…"

"Yo Hope-never dwell on the past. Live for the present."

"Yeah- I'll go join Julius-later." Hope said and trudged off.

There were a few other people on the beach-an old woman and her dog a few hundred metres to the left and a group of girls twenty or so metres to the right. Hope didn't mind their presence, but they were making a _serious racket_. _Did girls ever stop making a racket though?_

There were others too, but they were too far away to see properly. To one side of the beach was a small bar, and that's where Daniel and Morgan were heading. Morgan had clearly already finished his beer, and was going for something more adventurous.

The bar had only two or three customers at the moment, but today was clearly not peak season. He suspected that during the school holidays, this beach would be packed. The bar had a straw roof, and seemed to be made mostly of wood. Hope could hear music coming from the black speakers that hovered on each of the six supporting pillars. Turning around he ran to catch up with Julian. As Hope drew closer to the water, he noticed that the waves were really quite big; resembling a giant wall. They hit the beach with a resounding crash spraying water everywhere. Hope thought he saw a fish in the middle of it, and he felt a pang of sympathy. He spied Julian, knee deep in the water; unperturbed by the monstrous looking wave that seemed to be sneaking upon them.

"Those waves look big-shouldn't we start on something smaller?" Hope asked nervously.

"These?" The big man scoffed. "These are tiny! Let me tell you kid, there are waves over seventy feet high, down the beach where the water isn't so heavily controlled-and that's not even storm waves. Those are too awesome- but we start with these."

"Thanks," Hope said, taking Julius by surprise.

"For what?" The man was either incredibly dense or very modest. Somehow Hope didn't think it was the latter._ But I'm no genius either._

"You know...Helping me. I've just come here, and you're already making me feel welcome," Hope said.

"Yeah well, when Cocoon fell I..." Julian seemed as if he was going to say more, but decided against it. "Let's just say that when you spend every day on the beach-a change is nice you know?" Hope just nodded, and lifting his board up, gave Julius a grin.

"Where do we start?" he asked.

"Now we're talking!" Julius grinned, giving Hope the thumbs up and urging him forward. Hope nervously waded into the water until he was ankle-deep. There he gasped as he was confronted with another monstrous wave. He squealed, and tried to run back, but the wave slammed into him, and he was knocked off his feet. He landed heavily on his back, and was rolled out onto the sand. He deserved that. Since when did he squeal? Only a coward turned his back on the enemy.

Shaking his head he slowly sat up, hands behind his back and legs outstretched. He heard the roar of another wave._ Surely not! _It had been years since he had actually played in the sea. Usually, in Palumpolum he and his friends stayed on the beach. Travelling there took a long time, and no one wanted to get wet-besides if he wanted to swim, there was a swimming pool in his house. The coastline of Pal, where Hope usually went was a major shipping highway, and the sea was controlled even greater than here. There were no waves at all, unless you counted the tide coming in and out.

In of the first things he and his dad had agreed on, when they had decided what to put on their new Pulsian House was a swimming pool. Pulse really was hot. It could get cold too, but that was a different matter. It seemed to be a land of extremes. Retrima was nowhere near as bad as here though. He reached into his wet pocket, and clicked a small button.

"AI what's the current temperature?"

"System is undergoing maintenance."

"Piece of shit." Hope muttered

Turning his head and seeing the fast approaching wave Hope struggled to get up. He had no luck and the wave slammed into him again, knocking him off his feet, this time landing him on his side. He groaned in pain, the soggy grey t-shirt clinging to his skin. Determined not to make the same mistake again, Hope got straight up, grabbed his surfing board and quickly waded into the water. His cheeks burned, as he saw the girls staring, pointing and giggling.

"Looks like they like you champ! Now come on, and let's teach you how to surf!" Julius laughed.

"Yea...h. Wh..atever!" Hope said, as water filled his mouth.

It was not until six-thirty, when the tide was starting to come in and the sun was setting that a battered and bruised Hope emerged from the water, trailed by Julius. The beach was completely deserted. The only other people on it were Daniel and Morgan, who were lying in the sand. Daniel was reading a book, taking advantage of the last light of the dying sun, and Morgan was sipping a drink, whilst watching the sky. Daniel was sitting on his front, elbows propped up, whilst Morgan was lying on his back, hands behind his head.

Hope stumbled out of the water and collapsed hard onto the sand, into a sitting position. His eyes widened slightly and he gave a small gasp as he saw the sky. It was a mix of purple, red and orange, intertwined and laced with the last rays of the sun that shot through them. It cast the whole world into its shadow, and looking around Hope saw that the world had never looked so beautiful. He stared, mesmerized by the thin layer of clouds high up in the sky, that twirled and billowed with the wind. Hope closed his eyes and thought he could almost hear the wind. He opened his eyes and looked into the sun, losing himself in its last embrace. He didn't notice Julius sitting down next to him and staring up at the sky, saying nothing, enjoying the sunset with his new friend. It was not until the sun had set, and the sky had turned a dark purple that Hope reluctantly got to his feet, using Julius's shoulders to steady himself. He was surprised to see Daniel and Morgan behind him.

"Guy's I have to go. It was great meeting all of you, but I've got to be back by seven, and it's already five past. I'll catch you later." Hope said whilst stretching, ignoring the silent protests of his sore body.

"Why?" Julius said.

"What?" Hope said wearily.

"You can go to this get-together later, why don't we go out to get some drinks first?" Julius said. "They'll be on me."

"Retard! I'll be late!" Hope said, raising his hands helplessly.

"It's called being fashionably late Hope! Ever heard of it?" Morgan grinned.

"I'm sorry, I can't" Hope replied. "Besides I have no good excuse." A smile broke out on his face.

Knowing they had gotten him, Daniel smiled and clapped his hand.

"Don't worry Hope, we got your back!"

"You'll speak to her?" Hope said doubtfully.

"Her?" Julius shrieked in laughter. "Already there are we? Wow Hope, I never realized that looking like a god could get you that far! I tell you what-if Miss bossy two shoes doesn't relent…"

"You'll do what?" Hope asked, with a smile as he saw his friend stumble for an answer.

"Only one? Hope if had a tenth of the looks you did, I would have a bloody harem!" Daniel hooted.

"It's not like that!" Hope said. At the men's sniggering, Hope sighed shrugging his shoulders.

"Look I'll tell you over a drink, but I've got to phone her first, and I've lost my one."

"No problem," Julius said an excited grin on his face. The man clearly expected an emotional argument with a loved one. _Well Light is a loved one-just not in that way_. And if Hope had his way, there would be no argument.

Julius took his phone out of the pockets in his swimming trunks, and flicked the two bars apart. "Sorry, it's a bit wet!" A green light shone at the top to indicate it was on, and Hope connected it to Lightning's phone, using the number he had written on his hand. Once the phone was connected, a blue line lit up, signifying a successful connection.

"Hello?" he heard her familiar voice.

"Hey Light, its Hope!" he said, trying to ignore the three men standing next to him. His ears were already starting to burn.

"Hope? Where are you? It's ten past!" Lightning seemed flustered. To her _on-time _was ten minutes before hand. She had clearly expected him twenty minutes ago.

"I'm going to be slightly late. I met some friends and we're going out. Don't worry I'll join you at Serah's house."

"Fine-but then you have to sort out all the things that are sitting in my house-like that TV"

"Got it. I promise-tonight!" He ignored the hooting from his three illustrious friends.

"Hope's tapping that!"

"Puuusssssy Patrol!"

"What's that?" Lightning snapped.

"What's what?" Hope said innocently, trying to hush his friends up. It didn't work-they were having far too much fun.

"Just don't be too late," she sighed. Hope winced-she didn't seem happy. He looked back at the guys surrounding him.

"We got a go!" Hope grinned. He high fived them and followed them back up to where they had left their foot ware, near the walkway.

"We just have to put our surfboards away, but we'll be right back!" Morgan shouted. Hope watched them jog off, and he looked around. In the distance he saw his white bandage fluttering in the wind, where he had dropped it. Running over to it Hope snatched it and wrapped it back over his hand. The seal re-fused with his skin, and it looked like he had never taken it off. He knew he was lucky- Lightning and the others would have spotted the missing bandage instantly, and he didn't think he was ready to tell them that it had somehow healed overnight. He didn't think he was ready for what that meant himself.

Looking over his shoulder, he saw his friends jogging back up, except now they were all wearing t-shirts and sandals. They waved him over, and Hope grinned as he caught up with them.

"Where are we going?" Hope said.

"Just to that bar over there. It's called the Beachfront, and it's about the only place where we _can _go, dressed like this! Come on!" Daniel grinned. "We have to build your tolerance up!"

Before Hope could ask what tolerance, he was whisked away towards the Beachfront. It was actually quite a large bar, located just off the beach, lining the walkway. The cool air-conditioned air was a great contrast to the humid weather outside, and Hope actually shivered.

"Don't worry-you'll get used to it. Everyone finds it a bit cold in here when they first come in, but it soon wears off." Morgan laughed. Pulling up a stool, the other two did the same, and Hope pulled the last one sitting down and resting his elbows on the high table, burying his face in his hands.

"Would you like anything to drink?" A beautiful waiter with red hair descended upon them, and smiled at the three men.

"Hey Tess! Yeah! Three beers and a whisky-full shot." Daniel grinned up at her.

"A whisky, full shot? For who?" Morgan asked, confused.

"Young Hope here!" Daniel punched his shoulder. "We need to man him up!"

Hope grunted as he heard his name, and groaned as Daniel punched him. It wasn't meant to hurt, but his shoulders were already sore, and Daniel really wasn't helping. Looking up Hope saw the waiter, and smiled. She looked back at him in shock. Clearing her throat, she tore her eyes from him and looked back at Daniel.

"Anything else?" she said in a shaky voice.

"What? No, that's it," Daniel smiled. Tess cleared her throat again, before looking back at Hope. Catching his eye she smiled, and turned away, walking back to the bar.

"We're going to see how much it takes to get you drunk! Then we can go forwards from there." Julius said in a serious voice.

"Drunk! No! Guys, I have to meet up with my friends later!" Hope whispered urgently.

"Don't worry! We can get you sober again super quick! Morgan invented it, and it works every time. It's just a little..." Daniel said.

"Yeah, well we'll get to that later." Julius said. "Right now we want to hear about this _Light_ sweetheart you have!"

Hope groaned-why did he agree to tell them?

"Fine! It all started last week, when...," Hope began, before he was interrupted.

"Ooh recent!" Morgan grinned.

"Did you want to hear it or not?" Hope said annoyed.

"Hey! Everyone! Our friend Hope here is new to town. He's telling us the story that brought him to us! It's an epic tale telling of the mighty battle Hope faced as he waged war for what he believed in! Full of sex, gore and adventure! Who wants to listen?" Daniel shouted. Everyone turned around, and stared at the four people in the corner of the bar. Hope thought for a second that they would be laughed at, but was soon proved wrong. There was a loud cheering, and people started to come over.

"Idiot!" hissed Hope. "What the fuck? Epic story?"

"You're new here Hope. You need to get to know people. These guys are all our friends-you know party animals? We're forging you a social circle that others your age would die for." Julius whispered.

"But I don't have an epic story!" Hope whispered back, attempting to rein in his panic. At that moment the fiery red-headed waitress brought the drinks. Instead of going though she sat on a nearly full sofa nearby. Everyone had crowded around them, looking at Hope.

"Make one up! Don't tell me you've never had an adventure before Hope! There's something in those eyes. It's what made me want to be friends with you- I knew it the moment I looked into them. That die-hard never give up attitude that's burned into you. You've got what it takes Hope. Something tells me you've been through a lot worse."

Hope looked into Julius's eyes and saw unwavering confidence. Hope looked down at his table and picked up his drink swirling it down in one go. Here went nothing.

"We've got everyone-the rest is up to you." Daniel whispered, raising his arms. The room went silent. Hope stood up, already feeling the alcohol heating him up, firing through his veins. Julius was right-he _had _been through worse, although no one could guess how right.

"I'm Hope Estheim, and here is my story..."

The room was quiet for a moment, whilst everyone processed the story. He had made a few changes, in his version he and Lightning had swapped places. He was the one looking after her. Everything else was pretty much true. It really didn't need to be changed much. The room was so quiet, that he was afraid he would be kicked out, or laughed at. Then someone spoke up.

"I remember you Hope. You were on TV and everything! You were being chased by all those soldiers! I remember you and that tall guy with the bike. That was awesome. You saved us from being Fal'cie pets!"

There was murmuring, and from within the gathered people a cheer could be heard. "For the hero l'cie!" The cheer grew louder, until everyone was shouting his name.

"Hope! Hope! Hope!" Hope looked around in amazement. He was sure nobody would believe him, and he was certainly not expecting a cheering fanfare.

"Hope! Hope! Tell me, how did it feel to take down the Lodestar Behemoth? How could you do it?" The room fell silent once more.

"Sometimes, there is no can or can't. You do what you have to do." Hope said, paraphrasing what Lightning had told him all those years ago. He looked at his watch and saw the time was quarter to ten. Time to go.

"Hey guys. See you tomorrow, I've got to go." Hope said as he walked out of the door.

"Yeah later!" Daniel shouted. The other two were too stunned to say anything. Their new friend was a l'cie hero? Unbelievable. Brilliant. As Hope left there was a storm of protests, but he ignored them and carried on. He would finally get to see Hazel and Dajh. Hope smiled, he would never have foreseen this in the morning. Although he would give anything to have his old life back, things were finally starting to look up.

Hope opened the door to Lightning's house, and rushed upstairs to his room. He slipped off his clothes and rushed into the shower, letting the salt wash off him. He washed his hair with shampoo, and ran out drying himself as quickly as possible. He slipped on a pair of black trousers and a green vest. He grabbed a silver cardigan and left. He left the cardigan open, exposing the necklace he had gotten from Maravillara's-the golden eagle perched in the heavens and the symbol of hope alongside it.

Running out of the house, he called for a taxi and hoped everyone wouldn't be too mad at him.


	10. Angry meetings

_**Angry meetings**_

Lightning disconnected the phone, with a sigh. _He better not be too late_. She decided to make herself a cup of tea, before leaving and made her way to the kitchen. All of the things Hope had ordered a few days ago were _still _there; including the entertainment system, which was housed in surprisingly small box. Whatever, she would deal with it later.

She entered the kitchen and accessed the home server, before ordering the tea. In the meanwhile she sat down at the table. The latest GC news report had already come, and she absently flicked through its pages. The truth was, she was starting to get agitated, and it was only a few days into her forced vacation. She couldn't help but feel resentful.

About twenty minutes later, Lightning knocked on Serah's door alone. For some reason she was bothered. She had never been bothered before, when she went to Serah's alone, but now, for some reason she was bothered. _That's because you never had anyone to go with_. Lightning shut up the voice in her head. Hope had promised he wouldn't be too late. The door opened, and she saw Kara smiling, in between a yawn she was trying to cover with her hand.

"Light! Come in-Snow! They're here!" Kara yelled. Snow and Serah walked towards her. Serah was wearing an apron and oven miffs, whilst Snow was stretching, trying to do god-knows-what. "Hey sis, where's Hope?" he said.

"He's been delayed. Don't worry he's out with some friends he promised to be here soon." Lightning replied.

"He better be here! The foods already ready, and Sazh is due to be coming at any minute. It's already twenty past seven!" Serah said.

"He'll be here soon. I don't think Hope would be too late do you? He knows what you two will do to him. I wouldn't worry about him." Snow grinned. The door rang again and Snow smiled. "See I told you so!"

He moved to open the door, and found Sazh standing in the doorway, Dajh by his side.

"Sazh!" Snow grabbed the older man and pulled him into a bear hug. "Good to see you!"

The two sisters gave each other a look, before going forward to meet their friend and his young son. Hope had better be here soon.

"Ease up there, hero!" Sazh laughed, as Dajh ran past him into the house.

"Hello Aunty Claire and Aunty Serah!" Dajh said excitedly. Serah smiled down at the eight year old and ruffled his hair. "Hey Dajh."

"Hello Aunty Kara!" Dajh said grinning, and showing his small teeth. Kara smiled back, and wrapped Dajh in a hug.

"It's been a long time hasn't it Dajh," Kara laughed.

"Nuh-uh! I saw you on Thursday, when that lady looked after me and Hazel! Do you not remember Aunt Kara?" Dajh said pulling on Kara's white top.

"I remember, but Thursday was a long time ago!" Kara said.

"Not for me!" Dajh said as he ran off.

"Hey what about Uncle Snow?" Snow said after him, full of indignation.

"That's Dajh for you!" Sazh smiled.

"What happened to his hair?" Serah asked.

"Can you believe schools these days? They made me cut all his hair down, saying it wasn't part of school regulations. Back in Cocoon, they didn't give two dimwits about the hair length. You should have seen my hair back in pilot academy," Sazh grinned.

"Oh yeah, how is school anyway?" Snow asked, as everyone moved to the living room.

"Dajh hates it. He'd much rather play with his friends.

"Argh! All kids are like that!" Snow laughed.

"Kids will be kids!" Sazh chuckled. "Say, where's Hope? How's he doing? You know with his father and all?"

"Unnaturally well. Right now he's with some friends he made at the beach, but he should be here soon." Lightning said.

"Beach friends? I know we all love Hope, but _really_? Those guys spend all their time partying and drinking. What could they possibly want with Hope? Those people don't mix with just anyone-they shun anyone not up to their _level of cool_. Can you imagine Hope drinking and partying? Probably spends most of his time studying for school, like a boy should." Sazh said.

"Hope's not just anyone!" Lightning said defensively.

"Of course not. But the chances are that he's actually hanging out with them are tiny Hope's just a kid. He's not...not..." Serah said trying to find the right words. Her soothing voice infuriated Lightning.

"_Cool?"_ she asked coolly. Serah looked abashed, but the red flush in her cheeks gave what she was thinking away. Lightning snorted.

"Of course he's not _cool_. He's Hope, and that should be enough for us," Lightning said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Of course not! I'm glad he's not drinking the night away," Serah said heatedly.

"I don't know. Hope's pretty cool, but I don't think he's friends with them-he's only sixteen and they're all in their twenties. I know a lot of guys, and no one has even a tenth of the looks he has. He is a real chick-magnet, if I ever saw one. Life really has done a job on him. He's probably met some girl. Or girls!" Snow said, rubbing his chin, a huge grin splitting his face. "Oh come on! Don't pretend you don't stare at him when he isn't looking," Snow laughed good-naturedly, in response to the girls outraged faces. Serah and Kara looked away, faces deep red, and even Lightning had light pink ears.

"There's no way Hope is friends with those guys. I know some of them, and they definitely wouldn't go for him. Trust me." Kara sounded angry, and Snow laughed.

"You're just jealous that Hope might have a new girlfriend!" Snow laughed. Kara's face went even redder and she jumped on the big man, bringing him to the ground with a heavy thud.

"Well, when you two stop messing around-dinners ready." Serah said coolly, arms crossed. The red in her cheeks fading away.

"What about Hope?" Kara got up immediately and faced Serah. Lightning rolled her eyes.

"Stop worrying about Hope, he'll be here soon." she said. Everyone filed their way into the dining room, and started helping set the table. Sazh shouted for Dajh, who rushed in. Serah reached into the oven and took out a roast chicken, placing it on one of the hard mats on the table. Kara put the gravy and mash potato, on two other mats, whilst Serah returned and put on the vegetables. Snow and Sazh set out the plates and cutlery respectively. Once everything was ready, everyone sat down. The empty chair at the far end of the table was noticed by everyone, but no one said anything.

"What about Hazel?" Kara asked.

"Kara, she's one and a half! She's hardly going to eat roast chicken! I already fed her, and she's sleeping." Serah laughed.

By the time dinner was finished, and everything was washed up, it was five past eight. Still seeing no sign of Hope, and trying to avert an increasingly worried household, Serah decided to put on a movie. Fishing in the cabinet next to the TV, she pulled out a movie, and held it up in front of everyone-_The Everyman_.

"That's a rom-com! Put something proper on Serah," Snow complained.

"What? Like that Titan crap?" Serah shot Snow a murderous glare, and he cleared his throat, looking away.

"Just saying," he mumbled, as he leaned back on the sofa. Lightning entered the room, and paced the room. Sazh was behind her, but he sat down heavily next to Snow.

"Claire! Sit down and stop wandering around!" Serah said.

"Where is he?" Lightning muttered.

"He'll be fine, stop worrying and sit down. I've chosen a new movie-The Everyman. Ask Snow, it's really funny! Light?" Serah said as she noticed that Lightning was still pacing.

"Light?" Serah almost shouted. It was enough to make her swivel around and face her sister,

"What?" she replied harshly.

"Sit down, and I'll put on a movie," Serah said calmly.

"But what about Hope? I swear I'm never letting..." Lightning continued pacing.

"He's fine, and I'm sure he'll be here soon. If he's not we'll both deal with him," Serah said in an undeniably menacing tone. The menacing tone snapped Lightning out of it, and she moved towards the sofa.

"Yes we will" she whispered. Snow looked at Sazh, and almost felt sorry for Hope.

At that moment Kara entered the room, a bright smile on her face. "Dajh is upstairs sleeping in Hazel's room. Hey Serah, what you doing?" Kara asked as she saw the women lying face down on the carpet, her elbows propped up, and reading the back of a movie case.

"Just reading something-this really is a very funny movie you know. Snow fell out of his sofa laughing," she said, whilst still reading, but now a smile curving up her lips.

"Why does that not surprise me?" Lightning muttered.

"Hey! You were laughing as well-you rolled on top of me!" Snow laughed.

"I think we should have dessert first, you know-in case Hope comes. Might as well give him a last chance," Kara said, walking out, back into the kitchen.

"Actually, I am kinda hungry!" Snow said rubbing his chest.

"You just ate," Lightning said.

"Yeah but this is ice cream and cheesecake-dessert is different." Snow replied, with a big smile.

"I don't mind some dessert," Sazh said springing up. It was clear that all his complaints about being old didn't apply, when there was dessert. Lightning sniffed, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.

"We do have cheesecake and ice cream," Serah said. "How do you know?" she asked Snow.

"I bought it yesterday," he replied.

"Wait you got that, but not the carrots, mushrooms, lettuce, tomatoes, or anything else I asked for?" Serah asked incredulously.

"Hey! It's not my fault-I got everything I _knew _people would want. You got everythingI _knew_ people didn't want!" Snow said defensively.

"Whatever," Serah said. "I'll give the dessert out, then we'll watch the movie," she looked at Snow from the corner of her eyes, and grinned. "You can help me Snow."

Snow grimaced, and slowly got up. Looking down at Lightning, he offered his hand.

Lightning waved the hand away and got up herself. "I don't want any dessert," she strode past Snow and into the kitchen.

"So why are you going into the kitchen then?" Snow yelled after her. Grumpily he gave chase to her, and helped Serah give out the dessert to Sazh and Kara, before filling out two more bowls.

"Light's not having any," Snow said, glaring accusingly at her.

"She never has-not in a very long time anyway," Serah replied, taking Snow off guard.

"But strawberry cheesecake, and vanilla ice cream. Who could say no?" Snow whispered dramatically.

"She's not human!" Snow whispered loudly in his wife's ear. He immediately grunted as he felt her punch him.

"Light! Argh! What was that for?"

"What do you think?" she glared back.

"Look what I found!" Kara said as she walked in. She was holding a rather large cardboard box. "It's a board game-I found it upstairs. _World Domination_-what do you guys think?"

"Don't you want to watch the movie?" Snow said.

"And you do?" Kara said angrily. "What kind of man are you?"

"It's not that bad really! It's really funny, just give it a chance." Snow said in what he no doubt thought to be a soothing voice. It was anything but.

"I heard you complaining about it!" she said angrily.

"To maintain pretences-I can't be _seen_ to like this movie-it is a rom-com after all." Snow said smugly.

"Whatever!" she said storming past him, and picking up her bowl, which was lying on the counter. "You're not having any?" Kara asked when she saw Lightning sit down at the table, examining the board game.

"She thinks it'll make her fat, so I'm guessing no," Snow laughed. He was instantly cut off, as he felt Lightning's foot make sharp contact with his shin.

"This looks interesting. We could play this now" Lightning said. Looking at Serah's face, and cutting off any potential protests she added, somewhat reluctantly-"We can always watch the film afterwards."

Before anyone could argue, Lightning removed the lid and opened the box. She took out the large, flat rectangular plate. As she put it on the table, a red light shone straight down the middle, expanding until the whole plate was shining. When the light subsided, the plate held a holographic, 3-D map, showing mountains, forests, deserts and oceans, as well as different continents of different colours. In the side of the map, an instruction window had opened-she closed it quickly, since everyone knew how to play the game. She had never played it before, but she knew the rules. Each player was given a certain amount of soldiers, depending on how many players there were. Teams were colour-coded. Soldiers were displayed on the hologram, and all commands were issued by voice and touch.

"Five players, colour code random," she commanded, as everyone sat down at the table.

Instantly soldiers filled the map, spread randomly throughout the map. Instantly Lightning dragged her soldiers to the desired territory, as the others started to. This was going to be easy.

Lightning gritted her teeth. She was losing badly, and to make things worse, it was Snow who was winning. Kara was already out, and Sazh had given up. It was between Serah, herself and the indomitable oaf opposite. No matter what she tried, Snow always had more soldiers, and in most battles, his troops won. Serah was having less trouble, but she was still in difficulty.

"Come on Light! You're meant to be a soldier!" Snow grinned. Lightning swore that if he did another one of those grins at her, whilst she was still playing, she would hit him. She looked at her watch-it was already five past ten! Just then she heard someone knock on the door._ Hope_. She got up, and walked to the door, opening it. Hope was stumbling out of the front garden, walking heavily. His clothes were a mess, all torn and dirty, and his hair was all dishevelled. He was wearing a pair of black trousers and a silver cardigan that she had bought him. Despite this he looked as ridiculously handsome as ever. _How does he do that?_ Upon seeing him, she felt her anger drain away.

"You're late!" she called out. Hope turned around in surprise looking at her.

"I guess I am."


	11. Signs and Portents

_**Signs and Portents**_

In two years, civilisation had been transformed. After Cocoon fell, everything had been in ruins, everything destroyed. Yet through advanced technology, and unending persistence, that civilisation had been reborn. Where only small villages had been, booming metropolis's sat, greater by far than anything that had come before it. Before, everything had been limited by space.

Cocoon was in the air, and so building new things was exceedingly difficult without Fal'cie approval. Now everyone was on the ground, and cities grew and grew, without stop. New Bodhum was already larger than Eden ever was, stretching miles and miles in all directions, away from the Arythe Sea, and that was only the city core. Without Fal'cie interference, the level of technology had increased exponentially, creating everything from Holo-TV's and new hyper-fast transport infrastructure to anti-matter-disruption systems, which utilised the energy created when anti-matter and matter met.

Technology was already thousands of years ahead of where Cocoon had been, and the human civilisation had never been greater. Admittedly, most of the new technology had come from studying the ruins on Gran Pulse. A great depositary had been found, several hundred miles to the north of New Bodhum. Not only had it contained a huge amount of history, but there was a great deal of technology there. Scientist were easily able to understand it through regressive analysis, and the results were nothing short of incredible.

In the depositary, was a tiny AMDS, which was powering the entire underground complex. Scientists had taken it apart, and rebuilt it, on a truly grand scale. The amount of energy produced was easily enough to power any rebuilding attempt. Where there was darkness, light now illuminated. He still remembered the giant machines littering the landscape, crowded with people, thousands of metres tall, towering up into the purple heavens as they constructed civilisation ender the setting sun. Houses were built in minutes, cities in hours; distributed under a work force that spanned billions of self-replicating machines. If he remembered correctly it had all started with the discovery of the Delta File. Located deep within the Grand Depositary it contained all of the combined knowledge of the last civilisation that had been crushed into dust; slowly, during a war that lasted thousands of years with a Fal'Cie enemy that had been immeasurably more powerful than now.

The Delta File had allowed scientists to spend six months creating a single machine, the size of a house, with self-replicating properties. Everyone waited in baited breaths from various refugee camps. The results spoke for themselves. Powered by an energy unit unlike anything made before, the machine acknowledged the order to recreate civilisation; the rest was history. The original machine was called the Dome, after its shape, but the machines that spawned from it took on various shapes for their various roles. Unlike Dome, they were not conscious, and required people to man them. Thus by necessity, the technology had been mastered.

A democratic system was set up, a parliament was elected and a woman assumed leadership of the ruined people- Jane Asmal Rapture. She immediately ordered plans to be drawn up, regarding rebuilding. Engineers, designed the buildings, and watched as they rose in front of them. Geographers determined the best building locations, the structures of the cities and their size. These not only included New Bodhum, but other area's as well. There was a general consensus to give new names to new cities, and New Bodhum was the only exception. It was founded by Nora; one of the new branches of the military, designated with the task of keeping out all dangerous wildlife. A dangerous job, considering how many monsters there were lurking out there. New Bodhum was allowed to keep its name, in recognition to the contributions Nora had made. New Bodhum, remained the same as its predecessor had been, only on a larger scale. It was still a calm and peaceful city, with hot weather and blue skies.

Under Rapture's command, buildings rose out of nothing, roads were paved where before there was only grass, power flowed where before nothing but the wind sang. First the gigantic AMDS stations were set up, then thousands and thousands of engineers and architects pored over the land. Using technology from the depositary, cities were created, far in excess of what had come before. In the four greatest cities-Nova, Cloud, Star Reach and Everlast towers rose up miles in the air, joined by rolling light bridges, and filled with air traffic. Velocycles had long since been abandoned, and replaced with new designs that had their own AMDS onboard, giving them tremendous power. Everything had changed, everything was so far ahead of what it had been, yet General Cid Raines, could never have believed that they had come _this far. _

He _knew _this boy-Hope Estheim, from back when he was a l'Cie. The message showing on his screen _had _to be impossible.

"This is a joke?" he said coldly. The man next to him shook his head slightly. He was taller than most, and wore a dark expression, his long dark hair, falling to his shoulders.

"Originally we thought so, but the blood works cannot lie. Originally we had no way of knowing _what _had happened, _when _it had happened,_ who _had done this and _what _it meant."

"How did you get this?"

"Bloodworks from Sestopher Hospital, New Bodhum."

"New Bodhum? That's on the other side of the Phrate Mountains. How did you get it so quickly?" Raines asked.

"The matter was deemed important enough for instant transmission."

"I assume the other heads know?" Raines said.

"With the exception of General Villiers-yes sir."

"Why was he not notified?" Raines asked in surprise.

"He is off-duty-on leave following the birth of his daughter."

"Notify him immediately."

"Yes sir."

"The hologram here, Bowman is alerting me of a serious problem that threatens national security. Attached to it is a picture of one Hope Estheim, though he hardly looks like the boy I remember," Raines said turning around.

"There's actually a rather horrible reason for that sir."

"Yes...?" Raines said.

"I mentioned a few minutes ago that we had no way of knowing _what _had happened, _when _it had happened,_ who _had done this and _what _it meant," the man said.

"Dr. Bowman-are you trying to confuse me?"

"Sorry sir. I was talking about the results of the blood works. It made no sense at all."

"Then I suggest that you make sense of it. How important would you say this issue is? I've got to court-marshal a soldier who raped a ten year old girl. More important than that?" Raines asked. Of course that was a lie, but it was a fair way of determining the importance of the topic. He couldn't recall a single time, when someone had said yes.

"Absolutely."

Raines stiffened.

"I said that we _had_ no idea. That changed, unfortunately last night. We have a pretty good idea of some of these questions," the man said, speaking each word as efficiently as possible, though failing to hide a shudder.

"Do we need to call up a meeting of the general staff?"

"Yes sir-but you may want to hear this first."

He was clearly either deeply excited or scared. Probably both. The man usually showed as little emotion as a robot. Still, there was a reason he was Head Scientist-the man was brilliant at what he did, and that was all that really mattered. The Wide Area Response Brigade had long been disbanded by Rapture, but a whole new branch had been created. Next to Nora and the Guardian Corp, they were a general force, meant to provide backup in case either needed it. The GC, were mainly a police force, and so it was usually Nora who called upon them. That was changing. Nora was the largest force in the military, with more people joining everyday-no doubt thanks to the charismatic Snow Villiers, who Raines had also met. A good man. Saying that his own force wasn't much smaller, and composing the elite of the Pulsian army Raines felt comfortable in asserting their superiority.

The Cavalry had been replaced with the GRIP-General Reconnaissance and Internal Peace. Their main job was to root out terrorists. GC dealt with crime, and keeping the peace on the streets. GRIP made sure no-one blew up those streets. The faction Black Reid, were the main threat. They needed to be stopped.

Raines stared out of his window. He was on the nine hundredth floor, watching the flow of traffic pass him by, on their invisible airlines. Further beyond that, a pedestrian walked on a glowing bridge, carrying a bag of shopping. Cid was currently in the GRIP headquarters in Everlast, staring from his office window, on the top floor. _One of the perks of being promoted from Brigadier to full General. _At this altitude, wind should have been smashing into the buildings, the traffic, and even the multitudes of people on the light bridges, both on this level, and ones further down. He watched an old lady carrying a shopping bag get into her vehicle and speed off.

Currently Raines was 6.776354 miles above sea level. Only ten thousand feet higher, and he would be in the path of the commercial jets. Of course it was illegal to build anything higher than fourty thousand feet. Raines had no idea how it was managed. All this had been done in two years, with the help of incredibly advanced technology. This building alone used up nearly as much energy as an entire city would have in Cocoon. Though that was mostly for the labs on lower floors. Looking down, he could see only clouds floating in an orange sky.

"Continue," Cid replied, waiting for Dr. Bowman.

"Yes sir, but you're not going to like this. I believe that Hope Estheim is no longer human." Bowman said, causing Cid to whirl around.

"What?" he asked shocked.

"We analysed his blood. Then we analysed it again. Then we created a program with the sole purpose of deciphering his genetic make-up, and found something incredibly disturbing. His blood shows signs of incredible genetic modification. Take a look at this." Bow man said, flicking his finger. A Holo-TV came on.

"What am I looking at here?" Cid said. The screen showed, what looked like cells. Raines was not a biologist, and he didn't give a shit about it. He wanted answers.

"A weapon."

"What?" Raines asked, starting to sweat.

"They are cells," Bowman replied, looking at the images. "But not ordinary cells. We believe the process was activated at the onset of the subjects sixteenth birthday. It is estimated that the process will take up to four years to finish completely."

"Stop fooling around! Tell me everything! What fucking process?" Raines almost shouted.

"These cells are showing signs of turning into AMDS's" Bowman said quickly. That on its own should have been a case for worry.

Cid stared back at the screen. "These cells don't look like machines," he said, already relaxing. Maybe Bowman was wrong. There was only one problem. Bowman was never wrong.

"Machines? Well almost certainly not, not in that sense anyway. These look like ordinary cells, because they haven't started to change visibly yet. I believe that one cell will change first, providing enough energy to power everything else. What we suspect, is that each cell is turning into a hyper-powerful anti-matter power generator. Each cell would probably be capable of powering this building. They are biological power stations. The technology required to accomplish this is bio-engineering on a scale never before seen. It's millions of years ahead of us. We couldn't even begin to imagine how to create an AMDS that small-and for it to be biological? Not even in ten million years."

"Ten million years is a very long time." Raines asked heavily, staring at the image. _It couldn't be._

"I don't think you understand sir. His body is being re-wired. Completely. We ran the program ahead, and it crashed. Our smartest computes were unable to comprehend even a millionth of a percentile of the change that's going on."

"Just blood cell?" Raines said sitting down heavily.

"No, every cell." Bowman replied.

"They can't just all be power...thingies!" Raines said emphasising with his hands.

"We don't know how it'll work. I can't even speculate." Bowman said, sounding frustrated.

"Look Bowman, I'm no fool. AMDS generators are powerful, but I doubt that a microscopic amount of matter and antimatter could power this building." Cid said.

"It's far more complex than that. We have a finished model of a modified red-blood cell. It may not be 100% accurate, but it gives us a good idea. Somehow, the matter and anti-matter are prevented from destroying each other."

"I thought that's where the energy came from," Cid frowned. He disliked science-but this was starting to get interesting, albeit in a scary way.

"Ordinarily, but this way is highly efficient. Judging from the results, we believe that the matter and anti-matter used are not from this dimension. In the dimension from which they are derived matter and anti-matter are many times more destructive. The matter and antimatter generate energy off each other, causing a chain reaction. Their power output will increase exponentially, to a theoretically limitless potential." Bowman said.

"Another dimension? How? Why don't we do that?" Raines asked.

"We believe that the dimension will be created by a central cell within the body. As for us doing it? We don't know how. Whenever we bring matter and anti-matter together, they destroy each other. We don't know how to access another dimension, never mind create a whole new one with properties tailor made to suit our needs. This technology is so far ahead of our own, its incomprehensible. Imagine...every cell," Bowman muttered.

"How can you possibly know this?"

"Sir the computers we have, have 10 to the power of 100 Floating Point Operations. Before it crashed it was accurate."

"A computer that powerful shouldn't have crashed."

"It went through a paradox loop."

"Whatever. You don't actually expect me to believe this!"

"All the top scientists have confirmed this."

"Impossible! There are over a hundred trillion cells in a human body! The energy would rip him apart!" Cid growled. This had to be a joke.

"It gets worse. To allow such a major rewrite to the subjects system, other changes would have to also follow." Bowman said.

"His name is Hope Estheim. He is _not_ a subject!" Cid replied.

"Of course. We cannot tell from the blood works, what other changes will be." Bowman said.

"Is he going to turn into some kind of monster?" Cid asked.

"Highly unlikely. In fact, the modification has already changed the way he looks. He has gone from merely above average looking, to supernaturally beautiful, to the point where it has become ridiculous. Make no mistake-Hope Estheim is a weapon. As he gets older, they will only get better. We have two options-either we kill him whilst we still can, or we use him," Bowman said, his voice shaking.

"Use him? It sounds more humane to kill him."

"I'm sure he won't see it like that. I doubt very much he'll find these abilities a curse. We need to control him, so that when he does master them, we can use him for good, instead of letting him be on the rampage." Bowman said.

"What kind of a jail would hold him?"

"Jail? There are other ways of control. I guess the real question is...are you going to tell anyone?" Bowman replied.

"This will have to stay strictly amongst the top hierarchy. What about the doctors who brought this to our attention?" Raines asked.

"They've been dealt with."

"Not too messy I hope?"

"No sir."

Cid pursed his lips. He hated the thought of using Hope, but if he was a danger...Suddenly he turned around.

"When did this happen?" Raines demanded.

"We looked through his record, and apparently he went missing for two weeks, a few years ago. That's as good a time as any. The only problem is that there are no leads, nothing at all.

"Do we know who did this to him?" he demanded.

"No sir! And that's what's so scary."


	12. Hope & Darkness

_**Hope in trouble**_

**___Hey guys! Hope everything is going well. Insert the general disclaimer! Enjoy the Christmas edition and have a happy one yourself! I've just included something below, which will only be present in special editions._**

**_Date: 11/12/11_**

**_Chapter 12_**

**_Chapters until the end of Volume 1: 8_**

**_Chapters to go in total: 212_**

**_Plot progression: 2%_**

**_Major themes: 0%_**

**_Minor themes: 2%_**

**_Main Characters: Not all present._**

**_Romance arc: 1/5_**

**_Hopes power level: 1_**

**_Times died: 0_**

**_Hope/Lightning level: Friends_**

Hope walked down the street, kicking loose stones from the pavement onto the road. He watched it with little interest as it slid into the darkness of the night. Far into the distance the lit towers of New Bodhum's Central Business District shone into the sky. Here though, it was peaceful. And Hope took full advantage of that. He didn't hurry, even though he knew how angry everyone would be-or perhaps because of it. The breeze ruffled his hair and Hope looked up at the glimmering moon.

"_My parents died. I had to be strong for Serah, so I thought I needed to forget my past. And I became Lightning. I thought by changing my name, I could change who I was. I was younger then. You can't run away from yourself. Serah tried to tell me, but I wouldn't listen."_

Lightning's voice rang in his head. She had been talking to a different Hope; a Hope on the edge of darkness; a Hope with hate in his heart that had threatened to consume him; a Hope long gone. Yet he missed that Hope, and the adventures he had had. But that Hope was gone forever, changed forever. _It really was ironic: Lightning wanted to change herself and she thought a stupid name would do it. He had never wanted to change, yet it had happened, as profoundly as Lightning would have wished. One day he was Hope; another he was different. Everything about him had died. He wasn't sure what had happened, he just knew it had. He wanted more than anything to go back to the days where he was just a kid, where not everyone loved him, where not all girls fell at his feet, where he didn't have to run away from himself through drinks and drugs. Because Lightning was wrong. You could run away from yourself. Just not for very long. It was a misconception in history that being special was good. Everyone who was ever different just wanted to be normal; and all those who were normal wanted to stand out. They didn't realize what it truly meant to be alone. He wanted his family back._

"Ha! If they realized what I really did, why that would be the end." Hope snorted as he lit a cigarette. He ignored the part of him that was wailing at him in despair for him to stop. He snarled at it, shutting the door. The pressure built up and Hope grabbed his head in pain, hunching over.

"Not again," he mumbled, through clenched teeth.

"No please not again," he groaned. The pain intensified and Hope fell to his knees, and finally onto the ground, the cigarette lay forgotten. He had this once in a while, but recently it had gotten worse. Hope closed his eyes, writhing as the pain spread throughout his body. It kept on for a few seconds, and then vanished. Hope tried to get up, but found that he couldn't. His entire body was paralyzed, and felt like it was sleeping. Hope heard a rushing sound, in his ears and his body began to vibrate, or at least it seemed to. A white light blazed forth and engulfed Hope, and when it disappeared, he found himself sitting in a field. It was beautiful, surrounded by mountains and the dying sun. He gasped as he saw a beautiful women sitting opposite him.

The women tilted her head. Hope looked at her, and saw that she was smiling.

_Who are you?_

_I am you._

_What?_

_I am you._

_How can that be?_

_How can it not?_

_I'm not a girl._

_Nor am I._

_I am merely what your mind wants me to be. I am you. _

_You are not real?_

_I exist._

_My subconscious?_

_I am unfamiliar with that term, but call me as you will._

_What happened to me?_

_I do not know how you got here._

_Then where am I?_

_It is you who called me here._

_I did?_

…

_Return me at once._

_You listen poorly._

_Then we are trapped._

_Until the pain subsides. Yes._

_I don't believe you. You must be a witch!_

_As you say._

_You are? _

_No._

_Why are you so passive?_

_Because you are so hot headed. Yin and Yang. The mind and body must be balanced._

_Whatever._

Hope felt himself getting heavier, and the world getting more blurred. He dimly recalled the voice telling him they would meet again. He hoped not. He really did.

He gingerly opened his eyes, and got up, groaning.

"What was that?" he said to himself, as he checked the time. That was the strangest dream he had ever had. The pain in his head had gone, and he would worry about it some other time. He started running to the local teleportation system.

-Hope nervously knocked on the door, waiting for someone to open. The warm wind, tickled his face and fluttered his silver hair, and he smiled up at the silver stars. They laced the sky, shining and twinkling, looking down upon him.

The wind rustled the trees to either side of him, and a small, half-developed leaf blew across the sky, and touched Hope's face, before sliding off. This late at night, the street was empty, but Hope could distantly hear laughing from people having fun somewhere in the distance. Hope tried to look through the side window, into the house, but it was blacked out for the night, and nothing could be seen. Maybe no one was at home, Hope thought, maybe they had gone out. The thought was not encouraging, and Hope shut it out of his mind. Nervously, he rocked on his heels, a few times, wondering why the door wasn't opening. The whisky that he had drunk, as well as his headache however was not without effect, and he stumbled back, losing his balance and falling down the short concrete steps. Hope grunted as his head smashed into the edge of the bottom stair, and he tumbled onto the floor. He rolled on the floor, onto his back, groaning. Wearily he got to his feet, using his knees as support.

His clothes were covered in mess, and were torn, his body burned in a dull ache. He took one last look at the door, still unopened and sighed. He warily raised his hand to the back of his hand, and was only half-surprised to find a large and very painful lump. A fall like that should have cracked my skull. Hope could no longer find the energy to care. He was physically and emotionally exhausted. The discovery of his healed hand had nearly cracked him, and he wasn't sure what to make of this. The women and the dream made this day too great. He shut it into the darkness that he already knew would someday escape.

He decided to deal with it later. _Maybe the fall wasn't as bad as you thought_. Maybe, Hope thought, but that didn't explain the hand. _What's wrong with me?_

He used the front gate, in the front garden for support, as he tried to undo the latch. The light-lock would not disengage however and Hope moaned. _I got in didn't I? So why the fuck can't I get out?_ He tried to focus on the lock, but the lock mechanism just pulsed a dull blue and Hope couldn't concentrate. _That hit to the head must have been hard then_. Hope walked off the pave way and picked up a small stone from the grass. He threw it as hard as he could onto the street, but it just bounced off an invisible wall, that seemed to surround the house. A faint crackle could be heard, and the sky turned a bright blue for a second. _So the Security Shield had been activated. _Hope almost shouted in frustration. It turned on at a fixed time, every day. In this case, it was obvious that Serah and Snow had it set to activate at ten. Only someone implanted with a Household Identity Recognition Chip could pass through and deactivate it. He absently wondered why Lightning didn't have one. His father didn't have one, but there was no real need-not with his own personal security force. What had happened to them Hope didn't know. He was trying so desperately to not think about his father, even though he burned with white hot rage, similar to what had happened when his mother had died. He knew he had to run from it all, or revenge would consume him; he had learned his lesson from what had happened to Snow. He would however find who was responsible. One day. When he was strong enough he would rip apart the world looking for him. But not today. His father would have to wait, no matter how much the though tore at him.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts; he didn't hear the door open behind him.

"You're late!" A voice called out behind him. Hope turned around and faced Lightning, his eyes widening as he tried to concentrate on her face. In the end he gave up.

"I guess I am." Hope said wearily. He was almost taken off his feet, as she wrapped him in a hug.

"We were so worried about you," she said as she released him. "What happened to you?" she said as she gestured to his clothes.

"Oh, nothing. I...I just tripped over and fell into the dirt." Hope said smiling.

"Where were you? You said you would only be a little late!" Serah shouted from behind Lightning, in the house. Hope walked past her and into the house, only to come face to face with Serah. Her angry glare only lasted a few seconds, as she tried to fight a smile. Before Hope could try and explain himself, she hugged him as well. Hope saw out of the corner of his eye, Kara. For some reason she was staring at him. She was probably worried too, but for the life of him he couldn't imagine why. He had only met her once. Breaking off from Serah's hug Hope walked towards the living room, brushing past Kara.

"Hey Kara!" Hope mumbled. She smiled and raised her hand, looking tired. Hope looked at his watch-it was pretty late, but not late enough to be tired-not for a twenty two year old. At least he thought she was twenty-two. He saw Sazh sitting on the sofa, and he walked up to the older man, sitting beside him.

"Alright pops?" Hope said, copying what Vanille used to say. Fighting back tears, he turned his mind to something else. He missed Vanille and Fang desperately. The darkness in the cupboard grew.

"Nice of you to join us Hope. Say, where the hell have you been?" Sazh replied as he wrapped Hope in a fatherly hug. Hug clawed his way out, glowering at Sazh. "Urgh geroff me! Sazh!"

From the corner of his eyes he saw Snow come in from the kitchen. Sazh finally let go with a laugh and Hope tried to sit up hoping to maintain at least some dignity. He stood up as Snow approached. Sazh followed suit.

"Hope! Glad you could make it!" Snow grinned, as they clasped hands.

"What the hell were you doing in the kitchen? Bit late to eat isn't it?" Hope smirked.

"Just playing a game. No worries-Snow had it in the bag," he said, with a wink.

"Hope you're in big trouble." He heard Serah's voice.

"You missed dinner, and dessert. Just where were you? You told Lightning you were going to be a little late!" Kara demanded.

"I already told Light. I made some friends on the beach, and I went with them. I'm sorry, I just lost track of time." Hope said. He was surprised when everyone, except Snow and Sazh rolled their eyes. _What were they doing?_

"You expect us to believe that?" Serah said. Hope looked around confused. He had no idea what was going on.

"Are you seriously telling me that you went to the beach, made some friends with some beach hunks, and they turned out to like you so much that they decided to take you out, even though you're only sixteen?" Hope turned to Kara's sceptical voice, not liking where this was going.

"Hope, you know you can tell us the truth right?" Serah rounded on him. Hope couldn't believe this! They thought he was lying!

"Alright! I was at the bookstore, catching up with the latest issue of RosVam! Sorry!" If they didn't believe him, perhaps they would believe this.

"You should have just said so Hope. We're all family, we won't judge you," Serah said.

Hope turned his eyes to Snow, who was sniggering, and for some reason Kara seemed smug.

"Whatever he was doing-it doesn't matter. He's here now." Snow said looking at Hope.

Hope looked at him, with an amused grin. He knew Snow was going to keep pestering him until he found out the truth, but that was between Snow and himself. None of the others needed to know. What Snow thought he had been doing, Hope had no idea. He didn't mind telling everyone. It just seemed that no-one believed him.

Hope sat on the sofa, and Snow fell down next to him.

"What really happened?"

"Bookstore."

"Bookst…Oh come on Hope! Then why are you slurring? I didn't know you were allowed to drink in a bookstore. Oh by the way I told Lightning to send you to summer school so you can get to grips with the academic mode."

"What? Bastard, why did you do that?"

"It's for your own good." Snow said whilst trying to hold in a laugh.

"Now tell me what really happened."

"I already said what really happened."

"Then invite them here."

"What? Are you serious? Serah would flip!"

"Why would I flip?" Serah said as she entered the living room.

"Snow was trying to show me the porn video he taped. I was just telling him you would flip if he showed it to me." Hope said casually.

"Porn video? Where?" she said. Snow was choking.

"I don't know-check his draws." Hope said.

Serah cast a glance at Snow, then at Hope and then walked towards the stairs.

"Idiot," hissed Snow. Hope noticed to his intense surprise, that Snow had stood up and was chasing his wife.

"Oh! Don't tell me…" Hope laughed to himself.

Just then Sazh came into the living room.

"What the hell are those two doing up there," he said as he cocked his head up to the ceiling.

"No idea," Hope smiled. "What's going on?"

"We're going to put on a movie." Sazh said. "A proper one this time," he said hastily as Hope raised his eyebrows.

"So how was your book?" Sazh asked as he collapsed onto the sofa.

It took Hope a few moments to realize what he was talking about.

"It was you know really interesting…I couldn't stop reading." Hope lied. Seemed to work though.

"What was it about?"

"Umm…Evil monsters and stuff. What about you?"

"It's my holiday, so I've taken Dajh to the park and we went to the top floor of the Celing Tower. It was fun."

Just then Lightning walked into the room, and sat down on the sofa, next to Hope, where Snow had sat. There was another large thud upstairs and Hope glanced up at the ceiling, and then turned his attention the room around him. He closed his eyes, and rested his back against the sofa sighing. He slipped in and out of sleep.

_Snow and Serah came downstairs and Snow sat on the sofa next to Sazh nursing his head. He absently wondered why none of the guys ever sat next to him, but the thought soon went, as he slipped back into sleep._

"You still have those?" Hope heard Sazh say incredulously. "Is this house still not connected to the Digital Network?"

"It is, but I prefer to watch movies the old fashioned way. Besides you have to pay to get movies off there, and we already have one here," Serah replied, whilst busy sorting the machine out.

"How many times Sazh-you said the same last week!"

"You should get a monthly subscription," Hope mumbled, as he curled up to a cushion.

"We don't watch movies very much. It's mostly TV for us," she replied.

Hope didn't reply. From the one eye that he had visible from the cushion he just watched. Raising his head, he looked around. On his sofa, Lightning and Snow sat. On the other one Kara, Serah and Sazh were starting to sit down. He thought dimly that Snow had been on the other sofa, but he couldn't be sure of anything anymore.

Hope sat up properly, and watched the screen. However, when the light dimmed, until the room was dark Hope could hold on no longer. He felt himself fight to keep his eyes open, and he rested his shoulder on Lightning's, as sleep overcome him. He felt her tense in surprise, as she wondered what to do. After a few seconds she relaxed, and flick something off his hair. He dimly felt Lightning push his head away, and attempt to put it gently on her lap. Hope's last thought was that it didn't matter-he would still fall asleep, if she poked him with her gunblade.

Sunlight shone on Hope's face as he blinked groggily. He was lying on the sofa, Lightning's legs pressed against his stomach, as his head rested on her hips. He raised his head, to see if anyone else was awake. He saw Lightning's head resting on the hand rest of the sofa. It appeared Snow had fallen to the floor in the middle of the night.

He sighed, as he rested his head back on Lightning's hips. He smiled to himself as he thought of Lightning and Snow's relationship. It had changed drastically over the last few years. Hope remembered when she had hit him, when everything was crystal, and Serah was entombed in front of them, with Snow trying to dig her out. And that bloody Mandarvin Scorpion shit. It all seemed a lifetime ago.

Lightning had long since accepted Snow as her brother, and probably loved him as much Hope himself did. He chuckled as he remembered how she had used to glare when he called her sis. Things really did change. Hope sat up, and carefully jumped off the sofa, trying to avoid Lightning's legs. It was funny-normally it took a few minutes to adjust his eyes to the sunlight, but today Hope felt fine. He was refreshed, and buzzing for something to do. He saw Serah and Kara sleeping on Sazh's shoulder. Hope walked out of the living room, and went quietly up the stairs. He searched upstairs looking for Hazel, and finally found her asleep, in her cot. He stared down at her, curled in her blankets. He wasn't sure how long he stood there, but he was jerked away from Hazel by a small child, with the most ridiculous afro.

"Hey mister!" the boy said.

"Dajh!" Hope grinned.

"Hey you know my name! Do you know Hazels name too?" the young boy said excitedly.

"Yeah, Hazel."

"Wow! You know everything."

"It's me Hope! You probably don't remember me," Hope said.

"I remember you. You're dad's friend. I haven't seen you in ages!" Dajh said excitedly.

"I've been gone a long time-but I'm here now."

"Do you want to play?" Dajh asked.

"Play? Play what?" Hope asked, amused.

"With my toys of course!" Dajh said leading Hope away, from Hazel's room, into the corridor. Dajh pressed his finger to the wall, and where his fingers were, blue and red lights glowed.

"You have to be red. I'm blue," Dajh said.

"What are we playing?" Hope asked confused.

"I'm building my base, you have to build your base! Let's see who makes the best one!" Dajh said. In front of Hope a pile of red energy bricks had been generated. He saw Dajh had a pile of blue ones. Hope smiled, and wiped his hand through the air, summoning the apartment Omniplex. He requested a large flat base, for the foundation, and it generated in front of him. It was a brilliant idea, making building blocks from suppressed energy fields. There was no cleaning up, since they disappeared once the power was disconnected. Hope sat cross-legged opposite Dajh and got to work.

"You're on!"

Lightning sat up, blinking as the rays of sun stung her eyes. She rubbed them wearily, and stared down at a sleeping Snow. She rolled her eyes, and stood up, being as quiet as possible so as not to wake anyone. She looked around, wondering where Hope was. He had fallen asleep almost immediately, once the movie had started and rested his head on her shoulder. No one had ever done that before, and initially she had been unsure of what to do. Eventually she had decided that the best course action was to lower his head onto her lap, where it would be more comfortable. She had never had a friend as close as Hope before. He had been gone two years and when he saw her, it was like he had been there the whole time. He knew her better than Serah did. He knew what drove her, how to make her smile and laugh, and most annoyingly how to piss her off. Most people did it by accident-but Hope could do it whenever he wanted. If anyone else had tried to rest their head on her shoulder she would have pushed them away-even Snow and Serah. She heard sounds from upstairs and she walked up to the stairs to get a better idea of what was going on. She heard Hope speaking with...Dajh? How did the boy even remember him?

"Ha! Mine's got a bigger gun!" She heard Dajh say.

"Yeah, but I have three guns. Look," Hope laughed.

"That's not a gun-it's a radiomast!" Dajh argued.

"It's not!" Hope pretended to argue. Lightning rolled her eyes and walked off towards the kitchen, intent on finding some coffee and some food.

Lightning sat on the kitchen table, reading the latest newspaper. Digital versions were available, but she preferred paper, rather than holograms. This way she didn't have to keep looking up. As she flicked through the pages, sipping her coffee, she heard someone coming down the stairs. Hope entered the kitchen, looking all bright and vibrant. _What's gotten into him?_ He looked surprised to see her, but veiled it quickly. He dug into the cupboards and drew out some cereal, before moving to the fridge and cursing the lack of milk. He sat down heavily next to her banging his head on the table.

"Can you believe that no-one's awake yet?" Hope said, as he eyed her cereal bowl. It still had some milk, and he grabbed it pouring his cereal into it. "I mean it's not even _that_ early!" Hope mumbled as he used her spoon to fork the cereal into his mouth. Lightning frowned at the box of cereal that he had taken out of the cupboard.

"Hope, do you know how much sugar that's got in it?" Lightning asked.

"Yep," he replied. She gave up-it wasn't worth it.

"The movie finished at one o 'clock, so everyone's pretty tired," Lightning said. Hope looked up from his cereal, into her eyes.

"But not you?" he asked.

"I'm a soldier Hope. I have a built in alarm clock-I always wake up early." She said.

"Yeah-you're weird," Hope mumbled. Lightning cast him a venomous glare, that would have had anyone else shaking, but much to her chagrin, Hope only laughed. "If those stupid looks worked on me, I would have been scared off ages ago," Hope grinned.

He scooped the last of the cereal into his mouth, before standing up and throwing the bowl and spoon into the corner of the room, where a silver square was on the floor. Instead of crashing, the bowl was slowed, until it stood still, slowly rotating in mid-air, in the centre of the square. It slowly rose, finally disappearing in a blue flash of light. The cupboard and cutlery draw glowed blue briefly, as the items were placed back into where they had been before, all clean.

"I love doing that-it beats washing! We definitely need to get one Light," Hope said as he stared at the silver square. As he walked past her, on his way out of the kitchen he whispered 'weirdo, and tried to scurry away, as Lightning punched him gently on the thigh.

"Where are you going?"

"Bookstore."

"Don't be too late Hope." She said.

"Hey Light! I'm going now-tell everyone I said bye!" Hope called as he made his way to the door. On his way a cushion smacked him on his face, and he glared at the living room.

"I didn't mean to wake you!"he yelled.

"Yeah? Well you did!" Snow shouted, as another cushion was hurled at Hope, who quickly fled through the front door. Lightning watched him go, and wondered how long Snow would last, when he awoke everyone else. The question was soon answered, as she heard a crashing sound, as somebody jumped him. She rolled her eyes, and focused back on her newspaper. Her month long vacation couldn't end quickly enough.


	13. Last night of freedom

_**Last night of freedom**_

**TIME: 20:23:12**

Hope sat on the beach, watching the sun set. Watching as the purple and red sky darkened slowly, as the sun descended. This new city was interesting to say the least. It was utterly different from Everlast, where he had once visited; one of the biggest sprawling metro cities in the known world. There, skyscrapers roared out of the ground, thousands of metres high, and the place was never quiet. There was always someone doing something at some time, somewhere. Here though-here was a place where someone could relax. He closed his eyes, listening to the sound of the waves, as they nibbled at his feet; and breathing in the scent of the salty water.

Tomorrow was the 10th of September, and it was to be the first day of school. Hope felt like shit. Recently, some scientist had succeeded in the refining of small machines called nano-bots. He hadn't taken much interest, until he heard they could download the entire school syllabus into student's brain in a few microseconds. Unfortunately they were only to be used by university students. The government of New Bodhum had not allowed high-school students to use them on grounds of "encouraging laziness and an undisciplined approach to work."

The last six months of uninterrupted holiday, from March had gone like a flash, and Hope wasn't sure he was prepared to go back to school. He sighed, looking up at the sky, lying down on his back. The wet sand moulded itself to his body and Hope closed his eyes. He listened around him, as he lost himself to the sound of birds and the chattering of people around him. If there was any good side, it was that he had made many friends from his loitering at the beach. Many of those friends that had sat around him, watching the sun set with him had gone home, and Hope was alone. He opened his eyes, looking upwards, and gasped when he felt cold water drench him. He spluttered and rolled onto his front, attempting to use the warm sand to heat himself up. It was futile however and he groaned as the sand went into his mouth. There was only one person who would do that, at this time of the evening._ Kara._

"Fuck you!" Hope spat, trying to get the sand out of his mouth. "I'm going to get you." Hope tried to sound threatening, but it didn't work. There was too much sand on his tongue. His relationship with Kara had...evolved, from that dinner all those months ago. She was one of his best friends, and the only person, apart from himself that knew of his extra-large bank-account. It really wasn't his fault, but she had seen the screen, displaying his account holdings. After making her swear she would never tell another soul, especially not Lightning he had gone on a shopping spree with her. Shopping really_ was _more fun with more than one person.

"Yeah, yeah cowboy- keep talking. You have been summoned for dinner at the Villiers residence." Kara said rolling her eyes. Hope made as if he was getting up, before grabbing her left leg, and pulling her into the sand. "Oh! Hope!" she growled, before leaping onto him, with a fistful of sand, determined to...Hope didn't know what the fuck she was planning. After a few minutes of rolling in the sand with her, Hope finally managed to escape and he shot off, leaving Kara on her back covered in sand.

"But seriously-we have to go." She said, slowly standing up, and brushing the sand off her.

"Where?" He asked.

"To Snows house." She replied.

"What? Are you having a laugh?" Hope said.

"What?" she said looking confused.

"It's the last day before school-we're going out!"

"What, and come to school shitfaced?" she asked, raising her eyebrows."

"Yup." Hope said proudly.

"Serah and Claire are going to kill you." She replied.

"Idiot-I'll pretend that I'm sick." He said in contempt,

"Whatever."

"You in?"

"Obviously."

"Then let's go."

**TIME: 20:53:29**

Hope walked down the beach, with Kara by his side. He had wasted the last half hour chatting to her about the most irrelevant things.

"_If I were you-school would be such a joke."_

"_Why?"_

"_Think about it-you're a billionaire. You don't need to do any schoolwork. It could just be a giant fuckaround."_

"_I never thought about that. But Serah and Lightning would kill me."_

"_They don't even need to know."_

"_I suppose…"_

"_You could bring in two hookers to parents evening, saying you have two mums. Then start fondling them."_

"_Maybe school won't be so bad."_

"_Exactly."_

Now that he thought about it, school could be seriously awesome. His disposition brightened somewhat. Just ahead of him was the beach walkway. The plasma streams were already online, filling the air with a blue glow. The streams flowed about ten metres above the ground, following the magnetic pathways of the tracks deep below.

"Heya Hope!" Hope turned around to see a bunch of guys on the side walkway. They were smirking as they took in his topless form covered in sand. Hope really had filled out in six months; Lightning had made sure of that. He was no longer even remotely weedy. Add to that Morgan's frankly ridiculous compulsory workout sessions and the fact that Hope was now six feet tall, and he was really quite a package. At least he liked to think so.

"Guys!" Hope grinned, as he put both hands on his hips, and stuck his chest out. He really was proud of his toned body, and it _really_ pissed all his friends off. The fat shit closest to him sniggered, and Hope frowned.

"What the fuck George?" Hope said annoyed.

"Nothing man!" George said putting his hand up.

"Hope, you're ridiculous. Stop parading yourself around like that. Next thing we know you'll turn out to be a model," another boy said.

"It's a fucking beach Dom! I'm in my swim trunks! Not parading!" Hope spluttered. They had really hit home.

"Ever heard of t-shirts?" George said.

"Whatever I got to go," Hope said, as he checked his watch.

"What?" Nah mate we're going out." George said. "Going to get wasted before school."

"Dumbass-I meant I'm going to go home and get changed. Give me five," Hope yelled as he walked away.

"Just hurry up!" another voice rang out.

"Damn my place is far from here." Kara cursed under her breath.

"No worries-we'll get some at my house. Last week I bought one of those nanofabricators.

"So what…"

"It can make you the clothes in a few seconds."

"Let's just hurry up." She said. It took a few minutes to reach home, and to his intense relief, he found that Lightning was not around. It appeared she had already gone to Serah's house. Why it was always there, he didn't understand. Surely they could come and visit once a while. He remembered last night at the Villiers residence. Lightning had given him a no-nonsense time at which to return home, much to his chagrin.

"_Nah, sorry, but I've got to be home...now," Hope tried to look apologetic. He walked up to the guys, and clapped hand with all of them._

"_See you tomorrow at school then!" Another boy yelled._

"_You too Tom!" Hope called back already moving off. As he went home, Hope heard other people call his name, and he waved back and shouted bye, but he never stopped. Up ahead were Morgan, Daniel, Julius, Alexander, Joshua, Dean, Buddy and all of his other beach friends. Hope tried to fight back his annoyance, but found it difficult. _

"_Hops!" a voice called out, and Hope swirled around. Behind him were at least ten girls, in their early twenties. He had made a lot of friends, when hanging out at the beach. Half of his time was spent there and the other half with his soon to be school friends and Kara. All of his older friends and by that Hope meant all of his friends who didn't go to school, who drank and who partied, and frequently dragged him along called him Hops. It was Morgan's fault. He had said that Hope was a girl's name, and so there had been a unanimous decision amongst his older friends to change it to Hops. _

"_Rebecca!" Hope smiled._

"_Hops! Everyone has been looking for you! Where have you been?" she asked._

"_Why?" Hope felt genuinely curious._

"_Before school celebration! We need to get you drunk! To start school with style," Charlotte said. Hope stared at the girl on Rebecca's left in disbelief. That disbelief soon turned on everyone as he noticed that they were all grinning and nodding._

"_Its two days to school! And you don't even go! In fact what do you do? Seriously! Apart from party?"_

"_Hope the celebration is for you! First day at school!"_

"_What? No! Fuck off!" Hope said. "I can't get drunk-not tonight! Besides I need to get home," Hope said quickly, before jogging off._

"_Bye," he yelled. He walked across the walkway, and made his way home. Opening the door, Hope stepped inside and took his sandals off. Putting them on the side, he walked around, seeing if Lightning was home. He looked around but seeing no sign of her, he checked his phone._

_**Hope-go straight to Serah's house. Meet you there-sorry but delayed by work**__._

_Hope looked at the message in amusement. She really worked too hard, but there was nothing he could do. _

_He ran upstairs and into his bedroom. He stripped off his clothes and into the bathroom. The hot water washed over him, and Hope grinned. The whole shower had been replaced, with a state-of-the art one. Hope had done some thinking, and he realized that this bedroom could not possibly have used to belong to Serah. She had never lived here. When she had lived with Lightning, Cocoon was still in the air. Probably just a slip of her tongue._

_Hope's new shower had everything, and it had set him back by forty-thousand gil. Over the summer, and with Kara's surprisingly useful advice, he had purchased a fair few buildings apart from the Light and Shadow. These included the nearby coffee shop, Caratel, several restaurants and loads of sea-view houses. Kara had reasoned that the money coming in would more than pay off, given time. Unfortunately most people weren't as shady as Crawford, and they wanted to see Hope's identification. It was easy enough to forge. Every week, over a hundred thousand gil, entered Hope's Account balance. Life really was sweet. Kara was worried about people wondering where the money had come from, but Hope couldn't care less. If anything was going to happen, it would have already. He turned on the Holo-TV that existed in the shower, and as he flicked through the channels, he temporarily forgot all about school._

_Hope stepped out of the shower and into his bedroom. Drying himself with his towel, he leapt onto his bed. The vast rotating bed, was a dream come true. All his friends had tried it and everyone knew how ridiculously cool it was. Once he had tried to cram as many friends as he could on it, but it had turned into a giant wrestling match as nobody wanted to be left off. He had to do that again sometime. He had bought Lightning one as well, and as he feared she had been angry. That anger had of course disappeared once she had tried it, and though she wanted to know where he had got the money from, he could tell she was grateful. Playing with the nanofabricator, he created some clothes and changed._

_The house had changed a lot-everyone had noticed, when they had came, two days ago on Friday. The bare wooden floors had rugs, the white walls were now cream. Paintings now hung, where there was nothing. Vases, full of flowers now stood on the window ledges. Bookshelves lined the walls, and the sofa's actually looked comfortable. Lightning had resisted initially, until Hope had told her that where she lived wasn't a home-it was just a house. She had shrugged and told him to try his best. When she had come home, she had clearly not expected for such a complete transformation. Hope had called in all the Home decorators he could to sort the house out in twelve hours. The results spoke for themselves. He had hoped that a more inviting home would make Lightning want to spend more time at home. It had worked, though Hope was sure that was because she now had someone to come home to. The house still helped though. Most evenings, Hope would either be out with friends or at home with Lightning doing anything from playing strategy war games, reading books or watching movies, sitting together sharing popcorn._

_Hope pulled out a cream coat, similar to the one Snow used to wear, back when they were l'Cie. Snapping on a pair of shades, Hope left the house and made his way to Serah's. As he walked, he smiled. The cream trench coat billowed in the wind, and his hair fluttered over his head. The road he walked down was lined with trees, beginning to turn yellow and orange; reflecting the colour of the sky. Leaves flew in the air, swirling around him as Hope walked on. Everything was bathed in an orange glow, and the sun had nearly set when Hope activated the door-alarm for Serah's house. He knew from experience that knocking could be painfully slow. The door immediately opened, and Hope saw someone he didn't expect._

"_Kara?" Hope said. "How did you get here so quickly?" His voice took on a more accusatory tone. He had hoped to arrive before her. Kara only smiled._

"_Guess you're just slow," she said, with a smile. Hope rolled his eyes and followed her in._

"_So how did you open the door so quickly?" he asked._

"_Oh, I was watching from the window, wondering how long it would take you." Kara said. Hope raised his eyebrows, and muttered something, which Kara didn't quite catch._

"_Say something Hope?" Kara asked, turning around._

"_What? No," Hope replied nonchalantly. They both entered the living room, where Lightning, and Serah sat on the large brown sofa directly opposite the Holo-TV. Hope remembered it, as he had fallen asleep on it months ago. The area had changed slightly, since he had last been there. Where before, there had been a large red rug in the centre of the room on top of a wooden floor; now a cream carpet stretched across the whole floor and the red rug was gone. A large painting of everyone, sat above the blazing fireplace, to the side of the room, enveloping everything with a glowing orange and yellow hue. The painting showed all the l'Cie. It was clearly based off a photograph that someone had taken a long time ago. Snow was sitting cross-legged next to a large campfire, roasting some meat with one arm on his chin. __Lightning sat next to Hope, watching the fire; her face changing colour as the flames crackled. Hope lay down next to Lightning, laughing as Fang wrestled him for something in his left hand. Vanille was sleeping next to the fire, bathing in its warmth, a small blanket wrapped around her. Sazh was no-where to be seen-he must have taken the photo._

_Snow, Maqui, Yuj stood in the opposite corridor, leading to the kitchen, waving hello when they saw Hope. Hope only raised his hand. Something's going on. Lebreau and Sazh sat on the side sofa, looking at the wall. Something's definitely going on. Even Lightning looked uncomfortable._

"_Hope, we need to talk," Serah said, patting the space next to her._

"_Um, alright. What about?" Hope asked._

"_You start school tomorrow, Hope. We just wanted to talk about how we think you should go about it," Serah said._

"_What?" Hope said confused._

"_This is what I mean!" Serah said, showing Hope a file, that was on the floor. I found them at your house when we visited." She said. Hope picked up the file, and opened it. His school records. He briefly looked at Lightning, before returning his eyes back to the file._

"_The grades aren't that bad! So what, if I got B's and C's?" He looked around for emotional support. The fact that everyone nodded seemed to cheer him up. That is until Serah looked around, and all those nods, turned into shaking heads. Hope snorted, especially when Serah looked away, and the shaking stopped, as the smiles returned, Cowards the lot of them._

"_But that's not the problem. Claire was never much of an academic, and dare I say it Snow wasn't either. I don't think anyone apart from Sazh and I took their studies seriously, and look how that turned out. I'm a nurse, Sazh is a pilot, Snow is a five-star military general, Kara works for a law firm in Everlast, Yuj and Maqui are both colonels and Lebreau runs the nearby cafe. Do you know what's important Hope? Why we're all successful?" Serah said._

"_Respect!" Serah said. "We all respected our teachers." Snow and the others looked distinctly uncomfortable with all this, and Hope suspected that the only three who had actually respected their teachers were Sazh, Lightning and Serah herself. He didn't say anything though. "Your record says that you barely ever did your homework and never really listened in class, and that's when you turned up. The teachers were amazed at the grades you do achieve!"_

"_It just seemed so trivial, to be going to school when I have defeated Fal'cie,"-he thought back to Barthandelus. All his I am Fal'cie and merely l'Cie shit. Kicked his fucking ass. _

"_I'm not saying this to be mean. I'm saying it because I love you. How are you going to get a job? You have the chance for a fresh start, and the last thing you need is for the teachers to give you bad references! Seriously Hope-please try and behave." Serah said standing up, and making Hope jump back._

" _Don't worry Hope! I need someone I can trust as my second in command. Once you're eighteen, I want you!" Snow said. Hope just gaped at him, having never heard of his friends plans for him before._

"_Huh?" Hope said._

"_You could get anyone-what makes you think Hope wants to? All those idiots who want to join Nora, there must be someone better qualified to be second in command! Nora's not a small outfit anymore Snow, it's the largest branch of the military! Get someone qualified to be your second in command." Lightning said frostily. She still disapproved of Nora._

"_They're colonels. I need a general." Snow said. Lightning looked at him wide-eyed._

"_You're going to make Hope a general? At eighteen?" Lightning asked incredulous._

"_That's the idea!" Snow grinned, and Serah seemed to be put off, as if the whole point of her lecture had been destroyed. It kind of had, though Hope thought. Wow. A general at eighteen! And I get to work with Yuj and Maqui!_

"_Are you allowed to do that?" Hope asked._

"_I can promote anyone I want. I doubt there's going to be too much of a problem once it becomes known that you were one of the l'Cie that saved everyone from the Fal'cie!" Snow said._

"_I think it's time for dinner," Serah said wearily. "And you're staying here tonight Hope. Snow's volunteered to drop you off at school in two days' time."_

_Hope followed everyone else into the dining room, and sat down, next to Yuj and Sazh. He was really not looking forward on Thursday_

Now though he kinda was_._ Now that Kara had told him all the shit he could do. He opened the door to his home, and raced upstairs. He logged onto the internet and downloaded the designs for their clothes. He pressed enter, and watched as the clothes were created in front of him. By the time Kara came upstairs, the clothes were done, and Hope was changed.

"This place was changed," she said.

"You mean has," he replied.

"What?" she said.

"Nothing," Hope sighed. "I'll give you a minute to change-lets go."

"Is this the new Viella Polo design?" Kara asked stunned.

"Yup," Hope replied, from outside the room.

"Do you know how much these cost?" she said.

"Oh I didn't buy them," he said.

"What, where did you get them then?" she called out.

"I pirated it." He replied. You wouldn't believe what you can get? Fancy any jewellery?"

"Really?" she asked excitedly.

"Well yeah-but not now," he replied. Kara emerged from the room with her supposedly expensive clothes. This was going to be a wild night. He didn't want to know what Lightning was going to do to him though.


	14. A new beginning

_**A new beginning**___

Hope closed the door behind him silently and walked towards the nearest transport station, with Kara following slightly behind. The dying sun lit his face with its magenta twilight, and the light breeze ruffled through his hair. His communications device vibrated, and in front of him a holograph of Morgan sprang to life.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"Coming," Hope said. He looked behind quickly to check where Kara was, before turning back to his friend.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"We're already there bro-catch you later." He replied, before terminating the communication. Hope sighed and quickened his steps towards the club. The streetlights were beginning to turn on. Above the street flowed blue cables of energy, perfectly smooth, and pulsating, bathing the street below in a watery light. The transport station was close by and Hope walked through the gates quickly, impatiently waiting for Kara. Once she was there he entered a cubicle, and typed the destination code. Soon their bodies disintegrated into a flash of light that flowed into the cables above the street, causing a slight pulsation; and then just as quickly they were in the Centre of New Bodhum, some thirty miles away.

This area was in no way similar to the leafy suburb they had just left. All around them, stood skyscrapers of tremendous proportions. The towers here were not as great as in some of the other cities, such as Everlast; but nonetheless they were so great that they reached above the clouds, thus making the tops invisible. Standing on ground level was a good way to feel insignificant.

"Shall we go?" Hope asked.

"Why not?" Kara asked with a smile.

The club was on the seventh hundred floor of the Metropolitan Cuisine, a tower stretching five kilometres in the air. The seventh hundred floor was in fact the penthouse, and the party was on the roof. At that altitude, the wind would be enough to make any party a very bad idea, but the use of suspended energy particles deflected the wind towards central wind ways, where all the wind in Central Bodhum was funnelled. These highways had wind speeds in excess of a thousand miles per hour, at an interval of around 300 metres. They were used to illuminate the city at night. None of the other civilised cities had anything quite like it, but new Bodhum had always had the highest funding from the government, due to its sentimental value as the first city.

Hope walked into the building, and into the concierge.

"Hi, I need a pass to floor 700." He said.

"Name?" the receptionist asked.

"Hope Estheim." He replied. The receptionist swiped on her holo-deck, before keying something in.

"Yes, that's right. The lift is down the stairs and on the left. Your DNA has been tagged; if there are any problems just let me know.

"What about my friend here?" Hope asked.

"Name?" the receptionist said, looking over at Kara.

"Kara Villiers." She replied. The receptionist's eyes widened slightly at the last name, perhaps wondering if this girl had any relation to the General of Nora.

"Yes, that's right." The receptionist said. "Have a nice time."

Hope walked down the large hallway, following the lush red carpet. On the side many people were milling around, to what purpose he could not say.

"You know she was looking at you," Kara said.

"Who?" Hope absently asked, as he searched for the stairs leading to the lifts.

"That receptionist." She replied.

"Well of course you moron; where else is she meant to look-the floor?" Hope said sarcastically. Yet the slight tinge to his cheeks betrayed the fact that he knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Give it up Hope, she was eye-fucking you!"

"Ah! There's the stairs!" Hope said loudly, in an attempt to change the subject.

They walked down the stairs into a large clearing, where there was a crowd of several people; all waiting to get on one of the several elevator bays. There was a beep, and one of the doors opened, and soon the room was clear. Hope walked to the nearest elevator and pressed the button. There was a whir, which signalled that the elevator was coming. Hope sat down on one of the blue energy benches nearby. These were relatively new, having only recently been backwards engineered. They made use of anti-gravity systems to form a seating area, which was extremely comfortable. They used too much power and were too expensive for any large scale use, at least in their current incarnation. He had no doubt that they would see commercial use soon enough though.

"You do have school tomorrow you know. Lightning is going to kill you." Kara said, whilst looking out the window at the dark sky.

"Why?" Hope asked. "It's not as if I don't have an excuse."

"What excuse?" Kara said.

"I was helping you clean your house, after someone went in and trashed it." Hope replied.

"What? That's your excuse?"

"What's wrong with it?"

"She'll never believe it!" Kara replied with a snort.

"She will, if she sees the damage herself." Hope replied.

"Yeah, but she won't, because there is no damage."

Hope looked down, saying nothing.

"There is no damage right Hope?" Kara said.

Hope still said nothing.

"Hope?" Kara said with a clearly malign edge.

"I may have hired someone to trash your house-but I told him to break nothing valuable and to steal nothing. I'll get someone to clean it up later." Hope said very quickly, and raising his arms to protect himself. This seemed to be a good move, since Kara leaped onto the ant-gravity bench and started to fight him. They writhed on it, with Kara trying to punch and Hope always rolling away, or deflecting it.

"Why you…" Kara said with grit teeth.

"What? I'll pay you back!" Hope said.

"No you won't! I want a new house and jewellery!" she said as she aimed another punch at him.

"A new house?" Hope said. "What the fuck for?"

They were disturbed from their revelry, by the sound of the elevator opening. From the lift emerged several people, who all stopped to stare at the two of them. Hope was lying face up on the gravity bench, with Kara straddling him. She at once went very red, and jumped off him, trying to explain to everyone what was really going on. Hope, however would have none of it.

"I told you it wasn't safe here!" he yelled. Kara gave him such a dirty look, that he fell of the bench with laughter.

"Asshole."

"Don't I know it!"

**06:22 am**

Hope heard a small beep sound, and then felt a heavy thump on his chest. Within minutes his body was burning up, and he writhed in agony. He jumped out of bed, and looking around him, he picked up one of his shoes and threw it at the bright blue ball floating in the air. He had bought that alarm clock a few weeks ago. It had said '_guaranteed to wake you up, so that you feel refreshed the whole day!' _He had bought it, and today was the first day he had tried it. It seemed as if it did do its job-just not in the way that he had anticipated. Being blasted with electricity did not seem a good way of starting the morning. He threw his other shoe at it, and the alarm clock finally buggered off and floated away.

He checked the ceiling clock and sighed. He had only had half an hour of sleep. Luckily he had not needed to explain to Lightning why he had come home at 6 in the morning, since she was asleep. His head was pulsing with pain, and he reached over to his counter and pressed the red button. A quick bolt of electricity was more than enough to dispel the pain and freshen him up. The ceiling in his room had recently been upgraded, and now it was indistinguishable from a real sky. In this virtual sky, the bright sun and the floating clouds were more than enough to cheer him up. It really came into its own at night though, when the stars came out.

He came downstairs half an hour later, and sat down at the breakfast table with Light. She was watching the news, while drinking some hot drink. He didn't know what it was, but from all the steam he wondered how she didn't burn herself.

"Morning," he said. He went into the cupboard and got some breakfast out.

"Good morning Hope." She replied. She transfixed him with a stare.

"What?" he said.

"It's your first day of school," she said. Hope rolled his eyes.

"As if I could forget," he muttered.

"So why aren't you wearing your uniform?" she replied, whilst taking another sip.

"Uniform?"

"Your new school requires a uniform Hope." She smiled at his outraged face.

"But you didn't buy me one!" Hope spluttered.

"Yes I did. I put it on your bed, whilst you are sleeping." She said. Hope banged his head on the table. It must be on the floor somewhere hidden under his blankets.

"You needn't have bothered Light-I could have got it free from the nanofabricator." He sighed.

"What nanofabricator? We don't have one-there's no way we could afford one! Not even Snow has one."

"Right," Hope said. "I'll go change now."

**07:46**

"Ready?" Snow asked, hopping onto his own air bike.

"I miss the Velocycles!" Hope complained. "I can't fly these," Hope kicked Snow's air bike in frustration.

"These? They go like three times as fast!" Snow said.

"Yeah but I don't know how to fly them!" Hope said.

"I'll teach you, maybe later," Snow said with a wink. "Come on get on!"

"We could just take the public teleport system," Hope said.

"There aren't any near the school," Snow replied.

Hope jumped on the bike, sitting behind Snow, wondering why they weren't using the aircar. _Serah must be going somewhere with Hazel_. Hope took comfort in at that at least he knew some people at school. He had made some friends at the beach, but that was only around twenty people, out of the thousand or so who went to New Bodhum High.

It was a new experience. Hope laughed into the wind as he stuck his head out, and his head was buffeted. Below him, buildings passed in a flash and roads and people swirled in and out of view. New Bodhum, was nothing like the major metropolis's such as Everlast and Star Reach, but its city centre was still busy, and there were airlanes.

As they got closer and closer to Central Bodhum, they rose higher and higher, as they followed the airlane. Other cars joined the lane, and soon everything was busy, and Hope could no longer see the landscape around him, only different aircars, and the jets of blue blur behind them. He could see however the looming skyscrapers that marked Bodhum Central, stretching up at the horizon. Hope could see the Metropolitan Cuisine, where he had partied last night, sticking straight up. Even from this height, the top couldn't be seen. It was said that the towers in Central Star Reach, where all commercial airlanes where diverted away from, reached fifty kilometres in the air; and at that height the sky was truly black, and people there swam with the stars.

As Hope stared at them, he noticed Snow turning off, and beginning to descend. Below them in the distance was a huge park, and a bunch of buildings-New Bodhum High. There were other schools in New Bodhum of course, such as Redwing, Tapering High and The Crowns Secondary Court. Serah had apparently chosen this one though. He looked around, now that most of the surrounding vehicles had gone and turning his head around he saw no sign of the sea. He looked over at Snows shoulders and saw that they were a kilometre in the air. That must mean that they were quite far from home, but they had only travelled for less than a minute. Hope had only travelled on an airbike once before, and had forgotten how much faster than cars they were.

"So that's why we brought the bike," Hope told Snow.

"What?" said Snow.

"The bike-why we brought it," Hope explained.

"Yeah, it's faster!" Snow yelled. There really was no need-the airbike was open, and travelling at extreme speeds, meant that no sound could usually be heard, over the roaring of the wind. Fortunately all airbike had force fields surrounding the two sides. They allowed objects to pass through, if they moved slowly enough, such as Hope's head, but nothing else. The noise outside was monitored by the airbike's internal computer. It cancelled any irrelevant noise such as wind, so that the inside of the airbike was silent. Any important noise was patched through though, such as people talking. Hope wished these kinds of things had existed back on Cocoon.

Snow lowered the airbike on the side of a large green field. As it neared the ground, Hope saw the grass around them being flattened, and the leaves on the floor being blown away. The vehicle landed with a slight bump, and Hope jumped out.

"Are we here?" Hope asked. Snow de-powered the bike before jumping off and looking back at Hope.

"Yeah, this part of the schools grounds-pretty big isn't it?" Snow said. "You would know where we were, if you'd gone and visited the school during the summer."

Hope growled, and started walking away leaving Snow behind. "Go! I'll find my own way!" He heard Snow give an affirmative answer, and get back in the bike, and start to leave.

"Bye!" Snow yelled, as he flew off. Hope raised his hand, watching Snow disappear into the horizon. Looking around him he saw that the field he was in was large but there were buildings all around. Before he could decide which one to head off to, he heard a loud whistle and a tall man ran up to him.

"This is a school-private property! You're trespassing young man. Leave now before I call the GC!" the man yelled as he came closer. Hope turned around in surprise; the man approaching wore shorts and a white t-shirt, the whistle hanging around his neck. He had a pair of black sunglasses and a blue and red baseball cap. Hope could see that he had blue eyes and long dark brown hair which went well with his golden skin. The man looked decent enough, but Hope had no time for him. He was already late for class.

"Sorry, but I need to go." Hope said, taking a map of the school grounds, and orientating it.

"I don't think so!" the man said.

"What the fuck?" Hope muttered quietly.

"What was that?" the man roared. It seemed he had better than usual hearing.

"Look please go away." Hope said, turning his back on the strange man.

"No!" He roared.

"Oh fuck off!" Hope said. The man opened his mouth and closed it wordlessly.

"You're one of those paedophiles aren't you? Trying to have your way with all the students here!"

"What? No! I'm a student! My name's Hope Estheim." He refrained from calling the man sir, since he didn't know who he was. Hope felt a sincere resentment at being made to go to school, despite being a secret billionaire. Kara had laughed about it for hours.

"You're at least twenty. This school only goes up to eighteen. What kind of a student flies a car into the school sports ground? Trying to be stealthy eh? You little shit, thinking I'm that stupid! I'm calling the Guardian Corps-they deal with scum like you. Breaking into schools-the youth of today are all cretins! And I'll get that blonde pervert with the long hair locked up too!""

The man had caught up with Hope, and was stabbing him with a finger. He towered over him; the man was a giant, at least six foot three, with a definite muscular build. He wished he hadn't sent Snow away.

"Then come with me to wherever new students are supposed to go. Then we can decide if I really am a student." Hope said nervously, praying that the man would agree.

"Well I can't just leave you! I'm coming with you! I've made my decision, so you can't run off like the criminal you are!" the man shouted. Hope winced internally. The man really was either extremely paranoid, or a ridiculous simpleton. The man stared a Hope for a minute or so before yelling again.

"What's wrong you imp? Move your ass!" he shouted. He was starting to really get on his nerves.

"I don't know the way, please show me," Hope said, trying to not show his frustration.

"Aha! What kind of a student can you be if you don't know your way around!" the man started to menacingly make his way towards Hope, who wailed and sat heavily on the warm grass. _Impossible. No-one can be this stupid! No-one!_

"Excuse me, what's going on here? Hope turned his head around to see a blonde woman with green eyes behind him. She was very beautiful, and slender, and Hope could hear the tall man begin to splutter.

"I caught this _criminal_ Miss Moro! Yes I did! Right here. I saw one of his cohorts drop him off from an airbike and zoom off again." The tall man said. His golden skin was being suffused with red as he looked at the women. She looked down at Hope and raised her eyebrows, her eyes widening in shock.

"He doesn't look like a criminal," she said.

"I'm not. I'm a student, my name is Hope Estheim!" Hope said wearily.

"Hope? Yes I know that name. I was just going through my register, last night. I remember a Hope Estheim in my form class."

"Thank god!" Hope said as he lay down on his back, closing his eyes and enjoying the feeling of sunlight.

"That doesn't explain why you're here." Miss Moro said.

"What?" Hope said opening his eyes and sitting up.

"Come with me-you're already late! The rest of your class are just there in that building to the left. We all saw you come down in that airbike-quite an entrance Mr. Estheim." She said.

"Uh thanks, I guess," Hope replied following his new form teacher. He looked back and stuck his middle finger up at the man, who spluttered and followed him, just to make sure.

They entered the building, and went through a long corridor. After going up a flight of double stairs, they entered another corridor, and Moro opened the first door on the left. The class went silent as she entered. Hope looked around, and saw that New Bodhum High was certainly a modern school. Each desk had its own in-built computer hologram system.

"Hope this is your new class! I'm sure you'll be alright." She said as she sat down on her chair at the front of the room. "You have your own seating place!" Moro said as she pointed to an empty seat in the centre of the room. "Please be seated." She told him.

Hope knew that he was going to hate this school. Everything was too controlled and strict-they were even being told where to sit! It seemed like one of those prison schools. Nevertheless he moved to his new desk and sat down with a heavy sigh. He returned the smile of the guy next to him, and focused his attention on the women at the front of the class. He found her looking at him, and she quickly looked away once she saw that he had realized. Hope sighed again. _Really? She's spying on me? What kind of a school is this?_

Hope realised that he must have caught the eye of the Miss Moro. All too soon, a sneaky plan emerged in his head. A plan born both from residual lust, as well as overriding laziness. He would try to seduce Miss Moro. He sincerely hoped that it would mean that he could get away with not doing any work. He did not listen to a word that the teacher said during registration, instead concentrating on how to get her into bed.

Registration ended relatively quickly, and Hope studied the timetable he had been given. It showed that his first lesson was history. Hope almost giggled-history had to be the most boring subject in the world. He had tried and failed to do it back in Palumpolum, but now that he already had all the money he would ever need there was no need to even try.

"Hey! Who else has got history now?" Hope called out.

"Yeah, me!" A tall dark haired boy replied. "Come, I'll show you the way!" Hope smiled and gave him a nod as he followed the boy out of the classroom. He gave one look back at Miss Moro, and winked at her in an extremely provocative manner. Her blush did not hide her shocked face.

"Hi, I'm Jason by the way, I take it you're Hope?" the boy grinned. Hope nodded, as he pushed his timetable into his jacket pocket.

"Yup," he said. "Do you know where we're going?"

"We have to go to the history building-it only a five minute walk away." Jason said with a small grin. "So are you a history buff?"

"What? Fuck no! I hate it, but for some reason I'm put down to do it." Hope sighed.

"You mean you didn't choose your subjects? All new students get to choose mate. Someone must have chosen for you!" Jason laughed, as Hope growled silently.

"Who's Sarah?" Jason asked.

"Huh?" Hope asked in confusion.

"The name you mumbled?" Jason asked. "Doesn't matter-I think you'll be glad that I hate the stupid subject as well. Can't stand those essays!" Jason exclaimed.

"So why are you doing it?" Hope asked.

"My mum forced me to- she said it would be good for university. I'm in a heap of shit though. This year we have our ICS exams, and history is supposed to be one of the hardest."

"It doesn't look good," Hope agreed. He smiled despite the impending boredom. He had found a way to fuck Miss Moro by lunch time.

Hope saw the history classroom up ahead, and got his plan into action. This was something that would never have occurred to him a few years ago. When he had become a l'Cie, he had been very hardworking and attentive in class. Even after that incident, he had still worked hard, though his social life saw a marked improvement. Now though? Now, he saw no real reason to work. The incentives were no longer clearly defined, and the last thing he wanted to do was work.

Hope fumbled in his pocket, and took out a cigarette. He knew this was risky, and if it went wrong, Lightning could be called in. If it went well though, the risks would be worth it. He lit the cigarette and kicked the door open with a loud crash. The class had around seven people, who were all startled by the loud noise. Looking around he saw disapproval written on nearly everyone's face. Jason sat at the back; everyone else was on the front row, studiously taking notes. They all had immaculate uniform; most had glasses and all were fucking losers. It didn't help that a few years ago; he would have been one of those hard working sheep. Those were the people who would get ahead in life. Though Hope was certain that no matter how hard they worked, they would never become as wealthy as himself.

The teacher grabbed Hope by the scruff of the neck and escorted him out of the class. Hope though he heard the man saying 'not another flipping Jason.' Hope was taken to the form room, and was told to wait. The teacher had probably gone to get Miss Moro. _Excellent_, Hope smiled. He finished the cigarette before dropping it on the floor. He took care not to look at himself in the mirror, since even he could get lost in those green eyes. It did not take long for Miss Moro to arrive, and to Hope's intense relief, she did not have that History teacher with her. Now it was time to get his plan working.

"Hope." She said sternly.

"Miss," he replied, with a low tone.

"What's going on?" she replied, though noticeably more bothered. Hope wondered to himself about this. He had never used his good looks to actively seduce a woman. His heart was beating so fast that it seemed as if it could burst out of his ribcage. When he had had sex with Jessica for the first time, he was pretty sure that he didn't have the looks he did now. He wondered if this was really going to work.

"I was feeling rather hot," Hope said in what he hoped was a seductive voice. "Could you take my clothes off?"

Instantly her face darkened. _Uh-oh. This didn't look good._

"Excuse me?" she said. This really wasn't going the way he hoped, but he figured he should go for broke.

"Uh…Could you please take my clothes off?" Hope said, hoping good manners would do the trick. It didn't. Moro just stood there, opening and closing her mouth.

_She's probably just shy_.

Hope, confident of his new appraisal of the situation, undid his tie and pulled off his shirt, showing his toned white torso.

"Stop!" she said. "Disgraceful! Absolutely disgraceful! Who do you think you are?" she thundered. "I am calling home right away young man-let's see what your parents have to say about this." With that Moro turned and left the room.

"Oh shit," Hope mumbled. That had definitely not gone to plan. He had never seduced a girl before, and it appeared that it wasn't as simple as he though. He would have to do a bit more research.

He took out his phone, and connected to his network server.

"Connect to network jlaix. Location New Bodhum." Hope said to his phone. He hoped the new AI he had got was better than the old one.

"Connection to New Bodhum servers authenticated. All nodes are online." The phone responded. In accordance, several green lights flashed on.

"Connect to Lister." Hope commanded. Lister was his go-to man. He was expensive but he was the man to call in situations like this.

"Contact file found. Command name Lister is an encrypted server. Password identification is needed."

"0-9-9-8-7-2-3-4 Velocity Airways" Hope whispered quickly.

"Connected-Lister is online."

"Hello?" a voice rang out."

"Hey Lister it's me, we have a problem." Hope said.

"What can I do?" he replied.

"I put a move on a teacher at school, and now she's calling home." Hope said. He could hear someone approaching.

"Understood." Lister terminated the connection and Hope stuffed the phone back in his pocket. Miss Moro walked back into the room, holding a phone. It seemed that she hadn't called home yet. Her eyes widened when she saw that Hope had not changed.

"Put your clothes on Hope." She ordered, giving him an icy glare. Hope did as he told, trying to supress his excitement. He wondered what Lister was going to do. He knew that it was likely that the school would ring Serah, since getting hold of Light would be nearly impossible. He hoped to god it worked.

"It appears no one's at home, but your Aunt, Serah is listed as a housewife. Shall I call her?"

Hope didn't answer and Moro connected to Serah's network. It connected suspiciously quickly, but Moro clearly didn't notice. Fixing her beautiful eyes on Hope, she spoke up.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hellllooooo? Who the fuck might this be?" Serah's voice replied. Hope twitched. It was definitely Serah's voice, but she would never say such a thing. Someone from Lister's organisation must be using a voice synthesiser.

"Oh hello." Moro said, clearly startled. This wasn't what she was expecting. It wasn't what Hope was either. This could get messy.

"Who the fuck is this?" the voice rang out.

"Hello, um I'm Miss Moro from Hope's school?" she said hesitantly. "I just wanted to complain about his behaviour…"

"What the fuck? We sent him to you, so he's your responsibility! It's up to you to punish him. And I wouldn't call his mum, because my sister likes being bothered even less than I do. So grow a pair of tits and stop fucking whinging. Dirty Skank." The line went dead.

Moro disconnected the phone, looking extremely flustered. She gave him a look, before quickly leaving the class. Hope had no doubt that she was planning something.

He picked up his school bag and lit up another cigarette. After a few minutes he sighed and left, heading back to history. He opened the door and headed straight to the back near Jason. The history teacher cast him a baleful look and handed him a card.

_MR. SVOLESON _

Hope smiled and put it in his pocket. History was going to be dry.

**1:12pm**

It turned out that he was getting a detention, set by Moro; though apparently there was no supervision. A teacher came in at the start of Lunch break and at the end to ensure that you were there. He made his way into his form room, where the detention was to be held. Miss Moro was already there, and sitting at one of the tables, was a dark haired girl. Hope sat at the back.

"At the front Hope!" Moro said. He sighed and moved to the front row, next to the dark haired girl.

"I'll be back in an hour, and I want to see what you have done!" she said, before leaving. Once she was gone, Hope rested his head on the table. He planned on getting the essay done quickly. He really didn't want to cause too much trouble. Being a delinquent wasn't as much fun as it had seemed. It had just dumped upon him a heavy guilty conscience.

"You're the new guy-Hope wasn't it?" the girl asked, though she clearly knew the answer. He hadn't paid her much attention, but now that he looked at her, she really was hot. Her brown hair matched her chocolate eyes gorgeously. But he didn't really care. Moro was the one he wanted. _But how to get her?_

"Yeah that's right," he replied, typing the essay title on to the holodeck.

"It sounds like a girl's name," she said. Hope looked at her.

"Really?" he said non-committedly. At that moment his phone vibrated-the id said it was Kara. For some reason she was requesting a holo-vid. He accepted. The figure of Kara came into view, between the dark haired girl and himself. He had to say that she looked particularly fine. However right now was not the time.

"What?" he said.

"There's a party tonight. In Central Bodhum, on top of the Silicon Tower. You're coming right?" she asked.

"What? No! As if I would. Do you know how tired I am?" Hope mumbled.

"Everyone's going to be there!" she said, as if to tempt him.

"I'll think about it," he replied before terminating the phone. He stared at the holo-screen, where he had begun to write the essay title. He turned it off, and rested his head on the desk. He would much rather sleep.

"You'll get into trouble if you don't do the essay." The girl said. Hope ignored her.

"I'm serious," she said again. Hope sighed. There was no way he would be able to sleep if she kept yattering on. He raised his head and turned to face her

"What was that about saying I have a girl's name?" he asked.

"Um"

"Don't worry-loads of girls say that." Hope replied.

"Really?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. He talked to her more and more, and she seemed to get more and more interested. She had completely forgotten her essay, despite what she had said earlier.

"Let's do it," she suddenly said.

"Huh? Yeah I suppose," Hope turned back to his table and turned his screen back on. The girl looked at him in surprise.

"What?" he asked.

"No, as in lets fuck." She said.

"Huh?" He replied, dumbfounded. Where had this come from? Why did it work with her and not Moro? Why not Moro?

"You heard me," she replied.

"Really?" He said raising his eyebrow. "You don't even know me,"

"What's there to know? It's not like I want to go out with you!" she said. Hope agreed, he had no intention of giving up his single status.

"I would, but I'm too tired," Hope said, turning back to his screen. _If I can get this girl, why can't I get Moro?_

"Don't worry-I'll do all the work." She said. She got up and walked towards him.

"By the way, my name is Alex-I'm in your form."

She unbuttoned his shirt, button by button and let it fall to the floor. Hope allowed her to pull his trousers off. He knew there was a good chance of getting caught, but he knew he wouldn't get into trouble. How this girl could be so bold though was another matter entirely. She looked at him expectantly.

"Well I'm not taking your clothes off-do it yourself!" Hope said. She rolled her eyes and pulled his briefs down. She licked her palm and reached for him. _Maybe being a delinquent wasn't so bad after all._

It was about twenty minutes later that they were disturbed. Hope was lying on the floor, naked, with Alex straddling him. Her hands were on his toned shoulders, as she grinded against him. Hope had his hands on her hips. They had already done it three times, and Hope had noticed something strange. First he seemed as full as ever, and second with each subsequent fuck, Alex had become more and more deranged; as if his cum was addictive. He would have to get it checked.

It was at precisely at that moment that the doors opened and Miss Moro entered. She dropped her cup of coffee when she saw the situation before her. The fact that neither stopped, made things worse, and she picked up the remains of the steaming coffee and threw it at Hope. He howled as it burnt him. He pulled out of Alex and ran out of the class clutching his chest; his bag and clothes forgotten. Could things get any more ridiculous?

**Federal Research Facility, Area designation secret, Yestura, Capital of the New World**

"What is this thing?" a man said bursting into the room. The lab was deep underground, so there was no natural sunlight. Instead a series of lights encircling the room, gave a bright blue edge to the pristine metallic walls. In the centre of the lab was a floating body. Around nine feet long, and covered in black shiny skin. It was full of uniform ridges and delicately patterned grooves. It was not human. Its head jutted out and was aligned with sharp teeth. It had a monstrous tail, which also seemed engraved. If there were eyes the man could not see it. The thing looked terrifying. He had heard over encrypted channels that he was needed urgently. He had seen this creature on the cameras, on the way over.

"This thing?" one of the scientists replied. "This thing sir is one of the most horrifying creatures we've ever seen."

"The civilisation that came before us. They were totally destroyed not even ruins were left. Up to now we have only speculated at what their downfall could have been. Now we know," another said.

"Let's deal first with that. I want to know what it is." The man said.

"It's an alien organism."

"Alien?" the man said faintly. "Are you sure?"

"Quite positive. It matches no known life forms found here."

"Where did you find it?" the man asked.

"In one of the more recent depositaries-Linux Alpha 2 I think it was."

"Is it dead?"

"Quite so."

"Is this a concern?"

Another two men stepped into the room.

"Ah! Dr. Bowman, General Yetae," the man said. "Would you please explain whats going on?"

"Certainly Senator." Bowman replied.

"This alien life form **is **a concern, and a great one at that. It was found preserved in Linux Alpha 2; though for what purpose I cannot say."

"This is not the only strange occurrence in recent months. Bloodworks from Sestopher Hospital, New Bodhum also brought strange results."

"What kind?"

"Come sir, we'll brief you as we go. There's no use staying here."

"Where to?"

"The Presidential suite. President Rapture wants to see you."

"But she sent me here."

"In that time we have told her whats going on. She now wants a meeting with you and the other senators."

"Senator," Bowman said taking off his glasses, and rubbing his eyes. "We believe these aliens were responsible for the destruction of the previous civilisation. And we've awoken them."


	15. More time with Light

**More time with Light**

Hope rested his head on his left arm, and stared out the window. Moro was talking about some upcoming concert, but he didn't give a shit. It was first thing in the morning, and he really couldn't stand the thought of spending the whole day at school. He thought he heard giggling, but he didn't raise his head to check.

"Estheim?" Moro asked. "Am I tiring you?"

Hope sighed. Not this again. Why couldn't she leave him alone?

"No miss," he said, raising his head. She looked satisfied, and carried on talking. She definitely had not forgotten the position she had found him in last week, and her cheeks, suffused with red highlighted this. Hope leaned back in his chair and debated internally what to do. There was no way he was going to school. He couldn't sit through double Geography, and besides he hadn't done any of the homework. The bell rang, and everyone got up. Hope waited for everyone to leave and snuck out the side entrance, leading to the courtyard and the meadow where he had first arrived at the school.

"Where are you going?" a girls voice rang out behind him. Hope didn't bother stopping, but the voice did not go away.

"Hope?" the voice said again. Finally Hope turned around to see who it was.

"Sylvie," he said. She was a girl in his Art class. He thought he had screwed her in the toilet a couple of days ago, but he couldn't remember. Anyway he didn't have time for any of that now.

"Whats up?" she asked.

"Nothing, why?" he replied. He suddenly had the fear that she was going to want to go with him, even though he himself didn't know where he was going.

"Let's go back to your place," she said, taking Hope completely by surprise.

"My place? Why?" he asked, confused.

"There we can fuck all day. You said your mum didn't get back till late." She said. Hope inwardly cursed-he had dug his own grave. He feared that if he refused she would get suspicious, but there was no choice; he really wanted to be alone.

"No thanks," he replied, and started walking away.

"Come on! I'll follow you until you say yes," Hope turned around, looking into her eyes. He was shocked. She looked desperate, far more desperate than she should have; almost like an addict suffering from withdrawal. He sincerely hoped that it had nothing to do with him. However now that he thought about it, Alex had wanted him as well-every day. He really needed to get checked out.

"I'm really sor-" he began.

"Hope!"

"Okay! Fine," he sighed. He really hoped that Light wasn't going to come home early. He didn't know what he would do if she caught him sleeping with this girl.

Hope called a cab, and they travelled back to his home. It was eight twenty in the morning and so the streets were pretty empty. The roar of the ocean could be heard from here, and the azure sky beamed down a shadow upon his back. The air felt heavy, as the heat of the sun began to kick in. Pulse had horribly extreme weather, and no technology had been found to counteract it. Recent evidence from scientists and historians seem to show that the ancient civilisation living on Pulse millennia ago had actually artificially created the inclement weather conditions. Though why, he couldn't guess. Even at this time of year, in September it was unbearably hot. Temperatures reached 35 degrees, and stayed at around 25 at night. The stars shone at night, and the lack of cloud coverage should have meant that temperatures dropped. However for some reason the heat did not leave. In winters, temperatures reached -40 degrees, and apparently the whole ocean froze over-though he himself had not seen it yet.

Hope opened the door and let Sylvie in, whom after asking where his room was, ran straight up.

"What the fuck?" he muttered, as he stared for a few minutes at the stairs that she had run up. Hope followed her slowly and when he got to his room; he found her already mostly naked. She was lying on the bed with only her panties on. They were black, with eagle lace tied around her hips. He had to say that even amongst the hottest girls, she was a catch. Her skin was olive, and her black hair flowed lusciously down to her shoulders. Her eyes brimmed with longing, and not for the first time Hope felt a great sense of forbearance.

"Look what I have," she purred, opening one of her fists revealing an extremely large bag of white powder.

"Is that?" he asked.

"Want some?" she asked, pouring some on her breasts. Hope smiled and got on the bed. He grabbed a rolling paper and smoothed it, before he started snorting. The drug instantly took hold, and trying to keep his hands steady he pulled her underwear off. Grabbing the bag he poured some more on her and snorted it. He gave Sylvia the roll and held the bag, and she took it in direct from there. He continued to pour more over more, whilst he climbed on top of her. Suddenly as if deciding to try something new, he pulled out of her and poured half the bag onto her crotch. Taking the roll from her he started to snort from there, as she moaned in delight.

Had Hope not been so intoxicated he would most certainly have heard the door downstairs open, though by this stage it would have been too late. Sylvia's incessant moaning would have undoubtedly alerted the intruder to their presence. Thus it was that Hope did not notice his bedroom door opening and the lithe figure of Lightning step in; shock painted across her face as she saw what he was engaging in.


End file.
